D3110: Crape myrtle bark scale (Coccidae: Eriococcidae) seasonally alters the abundance and composition of insect assemblages on infested trees

Monday, November 11, 2024

9:00 AM – 5:00 PM MST

Location: Phoenix Convention Center, Exhibit Hall 6, PCC

Presenting Author(s)

Elijah Paul Carroll

Ph.D. Candidate
Auburn University
Auburn, Alabama

Co-Author(s)

DH

David Held

Professor and Department chair
Auburn University
Auburn, Alabama
Selina Bruckner (she/her/hers)

Post-Doctoral Researcher
The Pennsylvania State University
State College, Pennsylvania
Nash Turley

Postdoctoral Researcher
The Pennsylvania State University
State College, Pennsylvania

Understanding changes to local communities brought about by biological invasions is important for conserving biodiversity and maintaining environmental stability. Scale insects (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) are a diverse group of insects well known for their invasion potential and ability to modify local insect communities. Here, our aim was to evaluate seasonal differences in local insect biodiversity, community structure, and taxa association’s on trees infested with crape myrtle bark scale (Eriococcus lagerstroemiae, CMBS), an invasive felt scale species that was introduced to the U.S. in 2004. Furthermore, we evaluated seasonal changes in standing honeydew crop on infested crape myrtle trees. Our field surveys showed that infestation of CMBS results in changes in local insect abundance, family-level richness, and evenness. Community structures of insect visitors were distinct between infested and non-infested trees. CMBS infested trees showed seasonal associations with Coccinellidae, Vespidae, Halictidae, Sphecidae, Syrphidae, and Muscidae. At a higher taxonomic resolution, the two most abundant indicator families (Coccinellidae, Vespidae) were dominated by invasive species. Non-infested crape myrtles showed no associations with insect taxa. Honeydew standing crop from landscape and potted trees infested with CMBS peaked during months with low insect visitation to infested crape myrtle trees. Our data suggests that CMBS-infested crape myrtle trees result in an overall less stable community structure that can be described by seasonal dominance by a few taxonomic groups during the summer months. This paper contributes to the understanding of how introductions of phloem-feeding hemipteran insects may alter seasonal insect community structure.