Abstract1 The dispersal of Ips typographus L. (Col., Scolytidae) was studied using a mark–release–recapture approach in a grid of traps equipped with pheromone lures of release rates of about 8.4 mg/day of 2‐methyl‐3‐buten‐2‐ol (MB) and 0.29 mg/day of (S)‐cis‐verbenol (cV) in experiment 1, and 1.2 mg/day of MB and 0.04 mg/day of cV in experiment 2.2 We investigated whether beetle dispersal reflected the simple diffusion pattern observed in previous I. typographus experiments, for which attractant release rates generally approached 50 mg/day of MB and 1 mg/day of cV. We also examined how environmental parameters (wind) and human activities (felling) could influence the beetles' flight.3 The recapture percentage was higher in experiment 1 than in experiment 2: respectively, 7.0% (with 64 traps) and 2.3% (with 100 traps) of the beetles that took off were caught in the traps.4 With the higher release rate (experiment 1), trap catches decreased with increased distance, whereas with the lower release rate (experiment 2), trap catches rose between 50 and 100 m then decreased with increasing distance.5 Flight was little orientated by prevailing wind directions, a feature probably explained by the low wind speeds (0–1.2 m/s) observed throughout the study.6 High trap catches of unmarked beetles close to areas undergoing thinning activities suggest that the presence of freshly cut spruce and larch material could have an influence on dispersal, attracting the beetles into the felling area. Spatial analyses show that capture patterns were autocorrelated up to distances of about 250 m.

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-A mark-recapture experiment with Ips typographus (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) was carried out on a 1-ha experimental plot in a healthy spruce stand in Belgium. Recapture of the released beetles was carried out using 96 unbaited standing live trap trees distributed homogeneously over the experimental plot. Less than 0.3 % of the marked beetles were recaptured during three replicates of the experiment. When a pheromone lure was added to one of the trap trees in a fourth replicate, the recapture rate rose to nearly 6 %. Implications for the beetles' dispersal are discussed. Moreover, the take-off rates were found to be strongly correlated to weather conditions at emergence: correlations between take-off percentages and the number of sunshine hours per day (r = 0.75), the average daytime relative humidity (r = -0.75) and the cloud cover index at noon (r = -0.63) were found to be highly significant (P <

1 The distribution and dynamics of insect populations in cities is poorly understood. One approach to address this question is to explore the permeability of the urban habitat to species from surrounding rural areas, which can serve as reservoirs in source-sink dynamics. 2 Here, we present data on the distribution of the forest insect pest of spruce, Ips typographus (Coleoptera, Scolytidae), along two axes entering the city of Brussels (Belgium) from the south-east and to the town centre. 3 The insect was caught everywhere along these transects, even in heavily urbanized surroundings, and sometimes in relatively high numbers. The catches were highest near the middle of the transects and lower at both ends of them. 4 This pattern was associated, on the one hand, with an urbanization gradient with the numbers of flying individuals increasing with the distance from the city centre and, on the other hand, with lower catches at the periphery of the city where a high proportion of broadleaved trees may have disrupted the response to aggregation pheromones. 5 In addition to the probable rural origin of the beetles, high catches at the Port of Brussels indicated that some of the insects might be of foreign origin and enter the city with imported timber, highlighting a pathway for unintentional introductions of organisms, including potentially invasive species.