Influence of age, mating status, sex, quantity of food, and long-term food deprivation on red flour beetle (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) flight initiation

Authors: PEREZ-MENDOZA, J - Animal And Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS); Campbell, James - Jim; Throne, James

Submitted to: Journal of Economic Entomology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/8/2011
Publication Date: 12/19/2011
Citation: Perez-Mendoza, J., Campbell, J.F., Throne, J.E. 2011. Influence of age, mating status, sex, quantity of food, and long-term food deprivation on red flour beetle (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) flight initiation. Journal of Economic Entomology. 104(6): 2078-2086. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1603/EC11140.

Interpretive Summary: The red flour beetle is one of the major pests in stored grain and in grain processing facilities throughout the world. Traps are used to monitor their movement to aid in making pest management decisions, but we don’t fully understand the factors that cause their movement. We found that older beetles were less likely to fly whether or not food was present, but more beetles flew when there was no food present than when provided with food. Both mated and virgin beetles were equally likely to fly when food was present, while mated beetles were more likely to fly than virgin beetles when there was no food present. More beetles flew when little or no food was present, but fewer beetles flew the longer they were starved. Our results suggest that T. castaneum uses flight as a mechanism to disperse to new environments during almost any part of their life span, unlike some other stored-product beetles that fly mostly when they are young. These results will help to develop better methods for interpreting trap catches from pest monitoring programs.

Technical Abstract: Effects of age, sex, presence or absence of food, mating status, quantity of food, and food deprivation on rate of and time of flight initiation of the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum (Herbst), were determined. Flight initiation declined with increasing age in both presence and absence of food. However, flight initiation was lower when food was present in the flight chambers than in the absence of food. In the presence of food, both mated and virgin beetles were equally likely to disperse by flight. However, in the absence of food, mated beetles initiated flight more readily that virgin individuals. Flight initiation was greatest when little or no food was present. The presence of varying quantities of food inside the flight chambers impacted the number of progeny produced by females before flight, but not the timing of flight. Rate of flight initiation was higher for beetles deprived of food for short periods of time compared to flight initiation of beetles with food in the flight chamber. Flight initiation decreased with increasing time without food. There were no differences in flight tendencies between males and females in the experiments reported here. Our results suggest that T. castaneum uses flight as a mechanism to disperse to new environments during almost any part of their life span and that this type of dispersion does not fit with the model of the so-called true migratory species that involves an “oogenesis-flight syndrome”.