Anoplophora glabripennis infestation (col.: cerambycidae) in Italy

Abstract

In June 2007, the Asian longhorned beetle Anoplophora glabripennis (Motschulsky) was found at Corbetta, in Lombardy, 23 km west of Milan, Italy. The invasive exotic pest was observed in four host trees, one sycamore maple Acer pseudoplatanus L. and three silver birches Betula pendula Rothmahler. During summer 2007, 20 living and 107 dead A. glabripennis beetles were collected on or around the infested trees. The dissection of the infested material showed that 287 beetles emerged from the trees during previous years and 158 living larvae of varied ages were still developing in April, 2008. Fortunately, it appears that predation by birds on early stage larvae developing under the bark, played a major role in limiting the developing pest population. A. glabripennis is native to China and Korea where it is considered as a serious pest of many deciduous trees including maples, poplars, and willows. During the last decade, it was accidentally introduced into the USA, Canada, Austria, Germany and France in wood packaging material of goods imported from China. The current discovery in Italy is the first record of the Asian pest in this country.

Reproductive biology of Sclerodermus brevicornis, a European parasitoid developing on three species of invasive longhorn beetles

“…The ALB is considered transient, targeted by current eradication actions, but with small isolated occurrences in several localities in the north and the center of the Italian peninsula (Hérard et al, 2009;EPPO, 2015b;Faccoli et al, 2015). Not included among quarantine pests (being officially controlled) or notifiable pests (a species that should be reported to plant health authorities if observed) but considered as a potential threat, is the Yellow Longhorn Beetle where figs and mulberries are common trees (Jucker et al, 2006;Lupi et al, 2013Lupi et al, , 2015a.…”

A review of pest surveillance techniques for detecting quarantine pests in Europe

“…Another use of sentinel plants is associated with the deployment of susceptible plants inside or around delimited outbreaks, to assess the persistence or the spread of the organism, as done with citrus canker in Florida (Parnell et al, 2009) and Asian longhorn beetle in Italy (Herard et al, 2009).…”

PM 9/15 (1) Anoplophora glabripennis: procedures for official control

“…and Ulmus spp. (Herard et al, 2009) are preferred hosts; other known hosts include Aesculus spp., Albizia spp., Alnus spp., Betula spp., Carpinus spp., Fagus spp., Fraxinus spp., Morus spp., Platanus spp., Prunus spp., Pyrus spp., Robinia spp., Rosa spp., Sorbus spp. and Sophora spp.…”

“…Insect activity may be seen in the form of woody shavings (frass), which accumulate around the base of the trees and on branches and branch junctions; oviposition pits, from which sap may ooze; exit holes on branches and trunks; hollow bark and larval galleries; signs of adult feeding on twigs and petioles; and branch dieback (Herard et al, 2009). Most symptoms tend to be found from approximately 1.5 m above ground up to the middle of the crown, but may also occur on stumps of freshly cut host trees.…”