Abstract: Massicus raddei (Blessig) is a main wood borer of chestnut tree in China and it attacks the trunk of Quercus mongolica and Quercus liaotungensis in Liaoning and Jilin provinces, Northeast China. It has already caused serious damage to the local economy and forest ecology. In order to explore whether semiochemicals would help the male matesearching, we devised a bioassay cage to observe the searching and mating behavior of male adults of M. raddei, and to access their visual and olfactory capability from their behavior. The results showed that the blind males could have normal searching and mating behavior. The normal males had no behavioral response to dead females enveloped with paraffin. Both results indicated that vision plays little role on the process of males searching for females. The searching and mating ability of males, with seven segments of antennal flagella removed significantly decreased. Removing whole antennal flagella would deprive the mating capability of males. However, the females who lost the whole antennal flagella could still successfully mate with the normal males. These results suggest that male antennae, especially the terminal seven segments, play important roles in searching and mating behavior of males and may contribute to sensing the semiochemicals released from females.

Key words: Massicus raddei, searching behavior, mating, vision, wood borer