Abstract
This study was designed to determine if the within-tree distributions of various southern pine beetle (SPB) life stages were similar for declining populations infesting loblolly and shortleaf pine in North Carolina. A secondary objective was to compare the accuracy of within-tree population estimation procedures based on reduced sampling efforts. This study was based on 20 infested loblolly pine sampled from 1975-76 and 10 shortleaf pine sampled from 1976-77. Trees were intensively sampled using 10 sample heights/tree. Nonintensive sampling was simulated using a portion (3 heights/tree) of the intensive samples. Both graphical and statistical comparison of data showed that quite similar within-tree distributions occurred for all SPB life stages infesting both host species. Comparison of intensive and nonintensive within-tree population estimates showed that accurate results were obtained from the latter at a considerable reduction in time and effort.