Principles Of Forest Entomology

This text considers forest insects occurring in forest ecosystems, specialized forestry settings, and urban forests, with an approach and coverage that make it suitable for use in both undergraduate and graduate courses in forest entomology and forest protection. Early chapters introduce entomology, middle chapters provide the first comprehensive treatment of the principles of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) of forest insects, and later chapters discuss the pest insects according to their feeding group.

This open access book will provide an introduction to forest entomology, the principles and techniques of forest insect pest management, the different forest insect guilds/feeding groups, and relevant forest insect pest management case studies. In addition to covering 30% of the earth, forest ecosystems provide numerous timber and non-timber products that affect our daily lives and recreational opportunities, habitat for diverse animal communities, watershed protection, play critical roles in the water cycle, and mitigate soil erosion and global warming. In addition to being the most abundant organisms in forest ecosystems, insects perform numerous functions in forests, many of which are beneficial and critical to forest health. Conversely, some insects damage and/or kill trees and reduce the capacity of forests to provide desired ecosystem services. The target audience of this book is upper-level undergraduate and graduate students and professionals interested in forest health and entomology.

This book is intended as a general text for undergraduates studying the manage ment of forest insect pests. It is divided into four parts: insects, ecology, manage ment, and practice. Part I, Insects, contains two chapters. The first is intended to provide an overview of the general attributes of insects. Recognizing that it is impossible to adequately treat such a diverse and complex group of organisms in such a short space, I have attempted to highlight those insectan characteristics that make them difficult animals to combat. I have also tried to expose the insects' weak points, those attributes that make them vulnerable to manipulation by human actions. Even so, this first chapter will seem inadequate and sketchy to many of my colleagues. Ideally, this book should be used in conjunction with a laboratory manual covering insect anatomy, physiology, biology, behavior, and classifica tion in much greater depth-in fact, this is how I organize my forest entomology course. It is hoped that this first chapter will provide nonentomologists with a general feel for the insects and with a broad understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, while Chapter 2 will provide a brief overview of the diverse insect fauna that attacks the various parts of forest trees and their products.

Historical review. Biotic potential. Environmental resistance. Insect abundance. Direct control of tree insects. Direct control by chemical methods. Indirect control of tree insects. Other indirect control measures. Leaf-eating insects. Meristem insects of the terminal parts. Phloem-wood insects. Wood destroyers. Sap-sucking insects. Insectivorous parasites. Insectivorous predators. Other relations of forest insects.