Estimating the foraging range of Cerceris fumipennis (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae) using land cover data

Abstract

Biosurveillance monitors the prey of the solitary buprestid-hunting wasp, Cerceris fumipennis (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae), for the presence for emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis, Fairmaire: Coleoptera: Buprestidae). Still unresolved is the foraging range, and thus the surveillance range, of C. fumipennis. Foraging occurs in forest canopies and wasps are difficult to track. We assumed that the proportion of conifer-feeding beetles collected at a colony would be related to the proportion of conifers in the surrounding area. If this is the case, the radius of the area around a colony which best correlates the proportion of conifers with the proportion of conifer feeding prey should reflect the foraging range of the colony. In this study, we used 7 yr of foraging data, and the National Land Cover Dataset 2016 map to estimate the foraging range of C. fumipennis. Overall, we found that the highest correlation between prey type collected, and forest type present, was between 1,000 and 1,500 m from the nest sites. We thus conclude that surveillance of a colony of C. fumipennis will yield information about the presence of non-native buprestids within a 1.0–1.5 km radius.