Environmental safety of entomopathogenic nematodes – Effects on abundance,\ud diversity and community structure of non-target beetles in a forest ecosystem

摘要

The large pine weevil, Hylobius abietis, is a serious threat to reforestation in Europe that necessitates routine\uduse of chemical insecticides. Application of entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN) to the coniferous\udtree stumps in which weevils breed has the potential to reduce the use of chemical pesticides. During\udfield trials to assess the efficacy of nematodes against pine weevil, non-target beetles were also identified\udand quantified on 10 sites (14 trials). Nematodes were applied to stumps between June and July. Emergence\udtraps captured beetles exiting from nematode-treated and untreated control stumps. Four trials\udwere monitored in the months immediately following nematode application and ten were monitored\udthe year after nematode application.\udA total of 65 species of non-target beetles were recovered, including 11 saproxylic species. We found no\udevidence of an effect of applied EPN on non-target beetle species richness, abundance, species richness\udper individual collected, or Shannon’s entropy (H’) either immediately or a year after nematode application,\udwhen more wood-specialists were recorded. As expected, there were marked differences between\udsites and/or tree species in the populations of non-target beetles recovered.\udThese results indicate that when EPN are applied in a forest ecosystem to suppress H. abietis populations,\udthe risk to non-target coleopteran populations must be considered negligible.