Temperature-Dependent Development of the Pistachio Bark Beetle Chaetoptelius Vestitus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae)

Chaetoptelius vestitus (Mulsant & Rey, 1861) is a major pest of Pistacia vera L. The biology of this species is understudied. Thus, in this study, the effect of temperature on development, survival and reproduction of the pistachio bark beetle was examined at the different fixed temperatures 25, 30 and 35.0°C. The developmental periods for egg, larvae, and pupae stages decreased with increasing temperature. In this study, we determined rates of development of immature stages (larval and pupal) for C. vestitus at each temperature, and we developed linear regression models to describe the influence of temperature on developmental rate. There were significant differences in the rate of development among the temperature for larval development (from oviposition to peak emergence of larvae) and pupal development (from larval to peak emergence of adults). The mean duration of total larval development and pupa were 55.37 ± 7.010 and 14.79 ± 4.857 days at 25°C, 36.69 ± 3.203 and 9.32 ± 1.106 days at 30°C, and 26.74 ± 2.984 and 4.60 ± 0.876 days at 35°C, respectively. Therefore, C. vestitus accomplished its total immature stage development in 128.93 ± 18.797 days at 25°C, 84.651 ± 9.097 days at 30°C, and 52.60 ± 9.524 days at 35°C. These thermal biology data will be a useful key factor to develop control strategies for this important pest.

Keywords: Chaetoptelius vestitus, Pistacia vera, development time variation, developmental rate, temperature, population, mortality, fecundity.