The Association between the Distribution of Resin Beads and the Emergence of Sirex noctilio on Red Pine in North America

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Eurasian woodwasp, Sirex noctilio, is an important wood boring pest. The manuscript is an intresting job to attempt to understand the biological significance of resin beads as indicators of the pest occurrence dynamics. I agree to publish it in Insects. There are two comments:

1, Different pine species may have difference resistance to Sirex noctilio. And, the paper studied only for one pine species in USA. The results have not universal significance in different hosts or different habits. So, in the title, add “on red pine in North America".

2, In the results, the degrees of freedom (df) should be added in the statistical description.

Author Response

Thank you so much foryour time reviewing our manuscript. We carefully considered all suggested edits by reviewers. The responses are in green color

1, Different pine species may have difference resistance to Sirex noctilio. And, the paper studied only for one pine species in USA. The results have not universal significance in different hosts or different habits. So, in the title, add “on red pine in North America".

The reviewer’s suggestion was added to the manuscript title.

2, In the results, the degrees of freedom (df) should be added in the statistical description.

Degree of freedom for the fixed effects was added in “data analysis in methods” and “Table 1 in results”.

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Dr. Faal,

I have carefully read your manuscript entitled "The association between the distribution of resin beads and the emergence of Sirex noctilio". I believe the paper contains new important information on the association between the oviposition marks and emergence of S. noctilio, an invasive pest of pines in North America, and therefore it could be published in Insects. However, I also found a few misprints as well as incomplete reference citations in the manuscript. Specifically, this includes both redundant words, for example, "of" (line 105) and punctuation marks, e.g., ":" (lines 272, 299 and 301). In addition, reference no. 18 refers to the paper in The Great Lakes Entomologist 2016, 49(1-2): 18-26. Moreover, here is the full citation for the reference no. 33: Madden, J.L. Physiological aspects of host tree favourability for the woodwasp, Sirex noctilio F. Proceedings of the Ecological Society of Australia 1968, 3: 147-149. Finally, please change "akaike" to "Akaike" (line 108).

Author Response

Thank you so much foryour time reviewing our manuscript. We carefully considered all suggested edits by reviewers. The responses are in green color

"of" (line 105) "of" Removed

and punctuation marks, e.g., ":" (lines 272, 299 and 301). ":" Removed from lines 276, 303, and 305

In addition, reference no. 18 refers to the paper in The Great Lakes Entomologist 2016, 49(1-2): 18-26. The reference was revised

Moreover, here is the full citation for the reference no. 33: Madden, J.L. Physiological aspects of host tree favourability for the woodwasp, Sirex noctilio F. Proceedings of the Ecological Society of Australia 1968, 3: 147-149. The reference was revised

Finally, please change "akaike" to "Akaike" (line 108). "akaike" was revised to "Akaike"