**2.1 The Japanese pine sawyer**

The Japanese pine sawyer, *Monochamus alternatus* Hope (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), is a stem-boring beetle widely distributed in eastern Asia and the northern portion of the Indochinese peninsula (Davis et al., 2008). This polyphagous beetle feeds on conifers throughout the life history, including many unrelated species of *Pinus*, *Picea*, *Abies*, *Cedrus*, *Larix*, and *Cupressus* (Ning et al., 2004; Davis et al., 2008). *M. alternatus* is a univoltine species, which produces only one generation per year (Togashi, 1989; L.P. Wang, 2004; Zhao et al., 2004). After copulation, the female adults gnaw ovipositing wounds in the bark of host trees, and lay eggs in the space between the phloem and the xylem (Anbutsu & Togashi, 2000). The newly hatched larvae ingest wood tissue from both the phloem and the xylem, and start to excavate "U" shaped tunnels from the third instar. The final instar larvae build oval pupal chambers at the end of the tunnels to pupate. The newly eclosed adults feed on shoots, needles, and bark to obtain nutrients for maturation (Shibata, 1987). Copulation usually takes place five to ten days after emergence, each adult is able to mate more than once (L.P. Wang, 2004; H. Yang et al., 2006). As a typical secondary stem-boring species, the female adults tend to select stressed hosts for oviposition (S.J. Hu et al., 2009), which is induced by the volatile chemicals (i.e., *α*-pinene, *β*-pinene, 3-carnine, and ethanol) emitted from the hosts (Ikeda et al., 1986; Yamasaki et al., 1989), but often influenced and deterred by bark thickness, branch diameter, ovipositing scars from other female adults, and larval frass (Nakamura et al., 1995a, 1995b; Anbutsu & Togashi, 2000; Li & Z.N. Zhang, 2006; S.J. Hu et al., 2009; Z.X. Yang et al., 2010).
