The ambrosia beetle used in this experiment will be Euwallacea sp, otherwise known as the PSHB jeopardizing many tree species in Southern California. Two tree species will be used in this experiment. Koelreuteria paniculata, the golden-rain tree, will be used as an example of a gumming tree and Persea americana, the avocado tree, will be used as the positive control for this experiment as it is a known species of tree endangered by the PSHB/Fusarium complex. The negative control would be a healthy, uninfected golden-rain tree. A total of 26 trees of each species will be assessed in order to perform reliable statistical analyses on the results obtained and to maintain a controlled number of specimens to ensure repeatability and reliability: 25 of each tree will be directly involved in the experiment and 1 of each will be the positive and negative controls. …show more content…
The negative and positive controls will be separate from each other and the populations that are being tested on. All tree species will start out with no PSHB infestation, and then 10 PSHB individuals (7 females and 3 males) will be released on a single tree from each of the two experimental populations of trees (a total of 20 PSHB individuals). After 120 days, or approximately 3-4 generation cycles [2], the greenhouses will be fumigated twice to kill all the surviving beetles. The number of beetles after 120 days will be counted in both the golden-rain tree greenhouse and the avocado tree greenhouse to determine the spread of infection, and the rate of success of reproduction of the beetles in each tree