Role of Geotaxis and Phototaxis in the Feeding and Oviposition Behavior of Overwintered Pissodes strobi12

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Abstract
Choice of oviposition sites by overwintered P. strobi females on excised Sitka spruce leaders and lateral branches is governed primarily by positive phototaxis and negative geotaxis. Although positive phototaxis appears to be the more predominant orientation response in laboratory experiments, either mechanism alone or both acting in concert, can account for the oviposition pattern produced by P. strobi each spring in the apical zone of erect Sitka spruce leaders. These orientation mechanisms, however, exert comparatively little influence on the selection of feeding sites along the length of excised host materials.