ABSTRACT
Cerambycid species of the Spondylidinae subfamily are distributed worldwide and are known for being prolific invaders that infest conifers. In New Zealand, Arhopalus ferus (Mulsant), the burnt pine longhorn beetle, is well-established and requires monitoring at high-risk sites such as ports, airports, and sawmills as part of the requirements to meet pine log export standards set by the New Zealand Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI). Currently, its surveillance relies on traps baited with host volatiles (i.e., ethanol and α-pinene). We used volatile collections from adult beetles, electroantennograms, and field trapping bioassays to identify the pheromones emitted by the burnt pine longhorn beetle A. ferus and their effects on its behaviour. We show that A. ferus males emit mainly (E)-fuscumol and geranylacetone, as well as the minor components, α-terpinene and p-mentha-1,3,8-triene, and that all four compounds elicit a dose-dependent response in antennae of both sexes. Traps baited with the binary combination of geranylacetone plus fuscumol captured significantly more female A. ferus than did unbaited traps in two of three field experiments. α-Terpinene did not affect A. ferus trap catches and effects of p-mentha-1,3,8-triene on trap catch were not determined. Our findings provide further evidence of the use of fuscumol and geranylacetone as aggregation-sex pheromones by longhorn beetles in the Spondylidinae subfamily, and suggest that their deployment in survey traps may improve the efficacy of A. ferus monitoring in New Zealand and elsewhere.
ABSTRACT
Exposure to carbon monoxide (CO) emitted by chainsaws can negatively impact health in forestry workers. This exploratory study measures CO concentration within the breathing zone of chainsaw operators during motor-manual operations, and discusses the potential influences on CO exposure levels. A CO monitoring instrument was paired with a concurrent video recording of task activities to enable correlation of exact working operations to critical exposure levels. Multiple streams of meteorological data were also collected from sensors worn by the eight professional tree fellers/log makers. Time-weighted averages were applied to investigate levels of CO exposure during a nominal 1-hr monitoring period. The differing task demands and environment were found to influence worker exposure to CO, supporting previous research. Pending further investigation, a number of possible actions are recommended to reduce observed high exposure levels and/or emission concentration.
