Volatile Compounds of Healthy and Insect-Damaged Hippophae rhamnoides sinensis in Natural and Planted Forests

Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides sinensis) is a small baccate deciduous shrub or subarbor plant that belongs to the Hippophae genus of the Elaeagnaceae family. Sea buckthorn plants share the characteristics of being arid-resistant, cold-tolerant, barren-enduring, and light-degree salt-tolerant. They also have a strong ability to fi x nitrogen. H. rhamnoides sinensis readily sends out tillers, or shoots growing from the base of the stem of the plant, so as to form dense shrubs with well developed root systems. These plants can rapidly improve adverse ecological conditions through effective conservation of soil and water resources and promotion of the growth of other plants. This species therefore has enormous potential for use on a large scale to control desertifi cation, particularly in northern China, and is of tremendous industrial value in the development of the regional economy and the protection of biodiversity. The seabuckthorn carpenterworm, Holcocerus hippophaecolus, belongs to the Lepidoptera order and, more specifi cally, the Holcocerus genus of the Cossidae family. The larva stage of H. hippophaecolus bores into the stems and roots of sea buckthorn. Most roots are bored to the point of being hollow, causing the whole tree to wither. In recent years, the seabuckthorn carpenterworm has broken out in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous region and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous region, as well as the Shaanxi, Shanxi, Liaoning, Hebei, and Gansu provinces. The entire area affected by H. hippophaecolus amounts to over 133,000 hectares, with 66,500 of these representing a total withering of sea buckthorn. Hence, the severity of H. hippophaecolus damage has yielded a catastrophic economic and industrial loss in China (Hua et al., 1990; Luo et al., 2003, 2007; Zong et al., 2005, 2006a, b, 2011). In the long-term co-evolution process, insects and plants have formed various interactions that are benefi cial to one species or the other, or both. The behavioural response of herbivorous insects toward host plants is an important core issue in the study of such interspecies relationships. This Volatile Compounds of Healthy and Insect-Damaged Hippophae rhamnoides sinensis in Natural and Planted Forests