Environmental Entomology (1998) 27, 123-129

David W. Hagstrum, Paul W. Flinn and Jerry J. Gaffney (1998)
Temperature gradient on Tribolium castaneum (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) adult dispersal in stored wheat
Environmental Entomology 27 (1), 123-129
Abstract: The dispersal behavior of Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) adults along a 22-36°C temperature gradient in stored wheat was monitored over a 20-h period with 8 microphones. Males tended to disperse more readily than females but both preferred temperatures of >30°C. Single adults generally did not stay at one location very long, and the average time of 9.7 min spent at the warm end with a temperature gradient was longer than that of 4.4 min spent at that location without a temperature gradient. An adult moved to a location 1, 2, and 3 microphones (7.8, 15.6, and 23.4 cm) away from where they were previously detected in 88.2, 10.6, and 1.2% of the cases. The temperature preference was much more evident with groups of 6 adults than with single adults because the presence of other adults apparently increased the time that adults spent at preferred temperatures. Observations on the times spent at different temperatures, the distances moved, and the influence of the sex of an adult and the presence of other adults provide the information needed to develop a predictive model for adult dispersal in response to the temperature gradients that occur in stored grain during the autumn and spring.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Database assignments for author(s): Paul W. Flinn

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
environment - cropping system/rotation
general biology - morphology - evolution

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Tribolium castaneum	Stored grain