Forest Sciences Commons^™

An Investigation Of The Cone And Seed Insects Of Whitebark Pine And Alpine Larch Emphasizing The Western Conifer Seed Bug (Hemiptera: Coreidae) And The Larch Cone Fly (Diptera: Anthomyiidae), Laurel K. Anderton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Laboratory and field feeding tests with Leptoglossus occidentalis Heidemann proved that both immature and mature seed bugs can use cones and foliage of whitebark pine, Pinus albicaulis Engelmann, as a food source for 1- to 2-week periods. Damage to unprotected whitebark pine cones by seed bugs ranged from 0.3 to 2.1 % of seeds per cone, and for bagged cones averaged 0.7% of seeds per cone. Total insect damage ranged from 0.4 to 7.2% of seeds per cone. A seed chalcid, Megastigmus sp., was documented for the first time on whitebark pine and damaged 4.7% of examined seeds at one …