Fun Mountain Pine Beetle Facts For Kids
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The mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) or a bark beetle is a species of the family Curculionidae. The exoskeleton of the mountain pine beetle is black.
These beetles are called bark beetles, like all the other species in the Dendroctonus genus. These beetles are known for destroying trees in North American forests.
These beetles have maintained a symbiotic relationship with yeasts, especially the species of Pichia and Candida (fungus) genera, as it helps in pheromone production and digestion. There are around 18 species in Dendroctonus. The mountain pine beetle belongs to the subfamily Scolytinae, which consists of bark beetles.
About 247 genera consist of 6,000 species in this subfamily. Many species of this subfamily feed in the phloem or inner bark layer on a tree, which is why they are named bark beetles.
However, these beetles also feed on fruits, wood, seeds, and herbaceous plants. Also, the family Curculionidae are called snout beetles or true weevils.
If these facts about the mountain pine beetles were interesting, then you need to check out these Hercules beetle and stag beetle facts pages!
Mountain Pine Beetle Interesting Facts
What type of animal is a mountain pine beetle?
The mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) is a bark beetle species of the order Coleoptera and phylum Arthropoda. During the development stages of these beetles, they are mostly solitary, as they spend time under the bark of infested trees.
They socially interact with their kind after they reach sexual maturity in their adult life.
These beetles are able to spend time flying from their original tree to a new host tree. Female attacking beetles search for a green tree with a large diameter and attack by burrowing under the bark.
What class of animal does a mountain pine beetle belong to?
The mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) belongs to the class of insects of animals and is considered an invasive pest.
How many mountain pine beetles are there in the world?
The mountain pine beetle populations around the world are not known. This beetle population increases in warm temperatures.
Where does a mountain pine beetle live?
The mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) is native to the forests of western North America. The range occupied by these species extends from British Columbia in the north through to northern Mexico in the south and from North Dakota west through to the Pacific coast.
These species infest Pinus ponderosa (ponderosa pine) and many trees in the Pinus genus, the range of their habitat contains these trees.
What is a mountain pine beetle's habitat?
The mountain pine beetle range spreads across habitats with the ponderosa pine, other pinus trees, and pine forests. Even though the mountain pine beetle species can reach higher altitudes, they prefer a lower range of altitude with intermediate temperatures.
This preference limits their range based on northern expansion and altitude. As per their life history, the cold temperatures in the further north were considered too cold for their survival.
But due to global warming, the winter temperatures now do not affect their life cycle. Due to this, the mountain pine beetle damage is costing trees in unaffected areas. These beetles infest trees under stress in priority, like trees having injuries, disease, old age, overcrowding, and fire damage.
When the beetle populations increase, they will infest healthy trees in the same area. This can make the complete population of Pinus trees kindling for fires and can affect the forest ecosystem.
The preferred altitude range of these species is from ground level to 11,000.6 ft (3,353 m). These species inhabit limber, ponderosa, scots, whitebark, jack, and lodgepole pine trees.
Who do mountain pine beetles live with?
The mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) has a solitary life in their development stage and socializes after they reach their sexual maturity.
How long does a mountain pine beetle live?
The adult mountain pine beetle life cycle lasts for a year, which also depends on the climate. Colder temperatures at high elevations lengthen the development stages of the mountain pine beetle larvae to around two years.
The adult mountain pine beetle lives only for a few days. In these few days, they fly to a new tree and reproduce under the bark in the tree.
How do they reproduce?
After the mountain pine beetle completes their development, adult female beetles fly to the Pinus tree that is apt for mating and for offsprings. Female beetles build an egg gallery by creating a burrow through the bark and into the phloem. In order to attract a male, females secrete pheromones.
Males that arrive at the mating site secrete their own pheromones to initiate infestation. Males then choose females based on the large-sized gallery in small trees.
Females also select or prefer larger males to enter their galleries. The female lets the male in after he stridulates. Then fertilization takes place.
The female lays up to 75 eggs. The male remains with the female up to three weeks after fertilization.
The eggs hatch after 10 - 14 days. Even though the parents remain in the tree, they show no parental care. Adults that hatch in this tree leaves in summertime around July or August as they become sexually mature.
What is their conservation status?
The conservation status of the mountain pine beetle is Not Evaluated.
Mountain Pine Beetle Fun Facts
What do mountain pine beetles look like?
The mountain pine beetle is cylindrical and black-colored. These species of bark beetles can be differentiated by the adult's gradual curve of the hind wing, as there are sharp spines along the hind wing of other bark beetles.
The eggs of mountain pine beetle are white and the larvae are white-bodied with brown heads. The larvae are legless and remain under the bark of pine trees for their development stages.
How cute are they?
The mountain pine beetle is completely black and is not considered cute.
How do they communicate?
Adult beetles release pheromones to attract other beetles. The female also releases verbenone pheromone which repels the other adult beetles.
How big is a mountain pine beetle?
The mountain pine beetle is 0.25 in (5 mm) in length. These pine beetles are half the size of tiger beetles.
How fast can mountain pine beetles move?
The exact speed at which these species move is not known.
How much does a mountain pine beetle weigh?
The weight of these beetles is not yet known.
What are the male and female names of the species?
There is no specific name given to the male and female mountain pine beetle species.
What would you call a baby mountain pine beetle?
There is no specific name given to the baby mountain pine beetle.
What do they eat?
The larvae feed and survive on the phloem of the tree they inhabit. They feed in perpendicular lines of the egg gallery they hatch in. After pupation, the adults eat fungal spores introduced by other beetles in the tree and some tree tissues. They also feed on the inner bark of pine trees like lodgepole pine.
Are they harmful?
No, the mountain pine bark beetle is not harmful to humans. This forest insect infests ponderosa pine, limber pine, and lodgepole pine.
Would they make a good pet?
No, they would not make a good pet. In fact, a large mountain pine beetle infestation can affect the ecosystem. They thrive in pine forests.
Did you know...
The mountain pine beetle scientific name is Dendroctonus ponderosae, which has Latin origins. Dendroctonus translates to 'tree killer' and ponderosae means 'pine tree.'
A recent mountain pine beetle outbreak in North America has affected a wide range of lodgepole pine forests, which includes over 40 million acres or 16 million hectares of forest area with millions of trees in British Columbia.
The mountain pine beetle damage results in sellable commodities in the market, which can also lower the cost of forest thinning projects, providing new jobs. Also, the epidemic caused in British Colombia has created opportunities for the upcoming bio-energy industry.
The current pine beetle outbreak is ten times the previous outbreak.
The first detection of the black beetle infestation in the Rocky Mountain area, United States was made in 1996.
A study by the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions study in 2016 stated that the rising of carbon dioxide levels would cancel out the impact of pine beetles in British Columbia by the year 2020.
The US Forest Service is working on a strategy called hazard tree removal, which prioritizes the use of recreational regions like roads, National Forest Service lands, campgrounds.
Some predators of this species are nuthatch, flies, woodpeckers, wasps, and checkered beetles.
How did the mountain pine beetle get to Canada?
The current outbreak in millions of trees in the Canadian forest began in the year 1996. The dry and hot summer seasons in Alberta and central British Columbia population growth led to range expansion to Canadian forest.
How to get rid of mountain pine beetles?
With infested trees, the needles turn to a rust color and drop from the branches in the second summer. Another sign of pine beetle infestation is boring dust in bark crevices and ground.
Pitch tubes, which are popcorn-shaped masses of resin occur on the trunk where the beetle starts burrowing. The pitch tubes are either pink, white, or brown.
The mountain pine beetle control or mountain pine beetle prevention for large-scale or forest areas can be done using harvesting at the leading edges of a green attack.
The pheromone baiting technique uses a synthetic hormone to bait these beetles in a single area and one can kill mountain pine beetle species easily. A single infested tree in a forest area can be removed by avoiding infestation of other healthy trees, which is called sanitation harvesting.
The process of removing groups of infested trees in a large area is called snip and skid. Controlled or mosaic burning involves the burning of a region with a high concentration of infested trees.
the process of cutting and then burning an infested tree is called fall and burn.
Biopesticides like chitosan can also be used. Chitosan was tested by the US forest service for pine trees to defend themselves against these beetle species.
The results of the US forest service showed that colloidal chitosan evoked a 40% increase in pine resin in south pine trees. The most effective way to prevent mountain pine beetle damage is by spraying to save a small group of high-value trees.
Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly animal facts for everyone to discover! For more relatable content, check out these water beetle facts and atlas beetle facts pages.
You can even occupy yourself at home by coloring on one of our free printable mountain pine beetle coloring pages.
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