Xyleborus monographus | |
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Xyleborus monographus female | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Coleoptera |
Family: | Curculionidae |
Genus: | Xyleborus |
Species: | X. monographus |
Binomial name | |
Xyleborus monographus Fabricius, 1792 | |
Xyleborus monographus, the Mediterranean oak borer, is a species of ambrosia beetle in the family Curculionidae. It is native to oaks in the regions around the Mediterranean Sea, but since 2019 has been found in California, where the oak trees it infests may be more vulnerable.
The Mediterranean oak borer is around 1⁄8 inch (3.2 mm) long. [1] It is native to the regions surrounding the Mediterranean. In these parts of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa the beetle mostly infests dead and dying oak trees. [2] It is found in at least twelve species of oak. [3] As with other ambrosia beetles, it carries symbiotic ambrosia fungi, which it cultivates for food along the boring tunnels. One of these fungi, Raffaelea montetyi, seems linked to wilt disease in cork trees ( Quercus suber ) in Portugal. [2]
When the females fly to another tree they carry the fungal spores in their mycangia. The beetle penetrates through thin or cracked bark in the canopy branches. [1] It first invades and kill branches in the canopy of a tree, then spreads to the trunk, culminating in the death of the tree. [2] The females produce two or more generations annually. Large populations can develop in the lower trunk over a number of growing seasons. The fungi take nutrients from the xylem, which transports nutrients from the roots of the tree to its stems and leaves. Mechanical damage seems to cause the greatest amount of damage, since the extensive tunnels weaken the tree limbs, which may break. [1]
The Mediterranean oak borer probably reached California around 2015. It was found in 2019 in Napa County, infesting oak trees near Calistoga. Since then it has been found in Lake County, Sonoma County and suburbs of Sacramento. It is not clear whether healthy trees are vulnerable, since the valley oak ( Quercus lobata ) and blue oak ( Quercus douglasii ) trees that were infested by Mediterranean Oak Borers were already under stress from other factors. [2] As of August 2020 the California Department of Food and Agriculture was cooperating with county, state and federal organizations to survey the patterns of infestation and investigate approaches to managing the beetle. [3]
Quercus rubra, the northern red oak, is an oak tree in the red oak group. It is a native of North America, in the eastern and central United States and southeast and south-central Canada. It has been introduced to small areas in Western Europe, where it can frequently be seen cultivated in gardens and parks. It prefers good soil that is slightly acidic. Often simply called red oak, northern red oak is so named to distinguish it from southern red oak (Q. falcata), also known as the Spanish oak. Northern red oak is sometimes called champion oak.
Quercus suber, commonly called the cork oak, is a medium-sized, evergreen oak tree in the section Quercus sect. Cerris. It is the primary source of cork for wine bottle stoppers and other uses, such as cork flooring and as the cores of cricket balls. It is native to southwest Europe and northwest Africa. In the Mediterranean basin the tree is an ancient species with fossil remnants dating back to the Tertiary period. It can survive for as long as two centuries. Typically, once it reaches 25 years old, its thick bark can be harvested for cork every 9 to 12 years without causing harm to the tree.
Platanus racemosa is a species of plane tree known by several common names, including California sycamore, western sycamore, California plane tree, and in North American Spanish aliso. Platanus racemosa is native to California and Baja California, where it grows in riparian areas, canyons, floodplains, at springs and seeps, and along streams and rivers in several types of habitats. It can be found as far north as Tehama and Humboldt counties.
Quercus macrocarpa, the bur oak or burr oak, is a species of oak tree native to eastern North America. It is in the white oak section, Quercus sect. Quercus, and is also called mossycup oak, mossycup white oak, blue oak, or scrub oak. The acorns are the largest of any North American oak, and are important food for wildlife.
Ambrosia beetles are beetles of the weevil subfamilies Scolytinae and Platypodinae, which live in nutritional symbiosis with ambrosia fungi. The beetles excavate tunnels in dead or stressed trees into which they introduce fungal gardens, their sole source of nutrition. After landing on a suitable tree, an ambrosia beetle excavates a tunnel in which it releases its fungal symbiont. The fungus penetrates the plant's xylem tissue, extracts nutrients from it, and concentrates the nutrients on and near the surface of the beetle gallery. Ambrosia fungi are typically poor wood degraders, and instead utilize less demanding nutrients. Symbiotic fungi produce and detoxify ethanol, which is an attractant for ambrosia beetles and likely prevents growth of antagonistic pathogens and selects for other beneficial symbionts. The majority of ambrosia beetles colonize xylem of recently dead trees, but some colonize stressed trees that are still alive, and a few species attack healthy trees. Species differ in their preference for different parts of trees, different stages of deterioration, and in the shape of their tunnels ("galleries"). However, the majority of ambrosia beetles are not specialized to any taxonomic group of hosts, unlike most phytophagous organisms including the closely related bark beetles. One species of ambrosia beetle, Austroplatypus incompertus exhibits eusociality, one of the few organisms outside of Hymenoptera and Isoptera to do so.
A bark beetle is the common name for the subfamily of beetles Scolytinae. Previously, this was considered a distinct family (Scolytidae), but is now understood to be a specialized clade of the "true weevil" family (Curculionidae). Although the term "bark beetle" refers to the fact that many species feed in the inner bark (phloem) layer of trees, the subfamily also has many species with other lifestyles, including some that bore into wood, feed in fruit and seeds, or tunnel into herbaceous plants. Well-known species are members of the type genus Scolytus, namely the European elm bark beetle S. multistriatus and the large elm bark beetle S. scolytus, which like the American elm bark beetle Hylurgopinus rufipes, transmit Dutch elm disease fungi (Ophiostoma). The mountain pine beetle Dendroctonus ponderosae, southern pine beetle Dendroctonus frontalis, and their near relatives are major pests of conifer forests in North America. A similarly aggressive species in Europe is the spruce ips Ips typographus. A tiny bark beetle, the coffee berry borer, Hypothenemus hampei is a major pest on coffee plantations around the world.
Frass refers loosely to the more or less solid excreta of insects, and to certain other related matter.
Quercus coccinea, the scarlet oak, is a deciduous tree in the red oak section Lobatae of the genus Quercus, in the family Fagaceae.
The term woodboring beetle encompasses many species and families of beetles whose larval or adult forms eat and destroy wood. In the woodworking industry, larval stages of some are sometimes referred to as woodworms. The three most species-rich families of woodboring beetles are longhorn beetles, bark beetles and weevils, and metallic flat-headed borers. Woodboring is thought to be the ancestral ecology of beetles, and bores made by beetles in fossil wood extend back to the earliest fossil record of beetles in the Early Permian (Asselian), around 295-300 million years ago.
The foamy bark canker is a disease affecting oak trees in California caused by the fungus Geosmithia sp. #41 and spread by the Western oak bark beetle. This disease is only seen through the symbiosis of the bark beetles and the fungal pathogen. The bark beetles target oak trees and bore holes through the peridermal tissues, making tunnels within the phloem. The fungal spores are brought into these tunnels by the beetles and begin to colonize the damaged cells inside the tunnels. Symptoms of the developing fungus include wet discoloration seeping from the beetle entry holes as the fungus begins to consume phloem and likely other tissues. If bark is removed, necrosis of the phloem can be observed surrounding the entry hole(s). As the disease progresses, a reddish sap and foamy liquid oozes from entry holes, thus giving the disease the name foamy bark canker. Eventually, after the disease has progressed, the tree dies. This disease is important because of its detrimental effects on oak trees and its ability to spread to several new Californian counties in just a couple of years.
Euwallacea fornicatus, also known as tea shot-hole borer, or polyphagous shot-hole borer (PSHB) is a species complex consisting of multiple cryptic species of ambrosia beetles known as an invasive species in California, Israel, South Africa, and Australia. The species has also been unintentionally introduced into exotic greenhouses in several European countries.
Xylosandrus compactus is a species of ambrosia beetle. Common names for this beetle include black twig borer, black coffee borer, black coffee twig borer and tea stem borer. The adult beetle is dark brown or black and inconspicuous; it bores into a twig of a host plant and lays its eggs, and the larvae create further tunnels through the plant tissues. These beetles are agricultural pests that damage the shoots of such crops as coffee, tea, cocoa and avocado.
Platypus cylindrus, commonly known as the oak pinhole borer, is a species of ambrosia beetle in the weevil family Scolytinae. The adults and larvae burrow under the bark of mature oak trees. It is native to Europe.
Xylosandrus crassiusculus, known generally as the Asian ambrosia beetle or granulate ambrosia beetle, is a species of tropical bark beetle in the family Curculionidae. It is native to Asia and has spread to Africa, Europe, Australasia and the Americas. The adult beetle is reddish-brown and some 2 to 3 mm long.
Xyloterinus is a genus of typical bark beetles in the family Curculionidae. This is a monotypic genus and the one described species is Xyloterinus politus. It is native to North America where it infests both hardwood and softwood trees, as well as stacks of logs.
Xylosandrus germanus, known generally as the alnus ambrosia beetle or black stem borer, is a species of ambrosia beetle in the family Curculionidae. X. germanus poses challenges in woody ornamental species and orchard crops such as apples and pecan. Furthermore, X. germanus is recognized or suspected to act as a vector for plant pathogens to varying extents, potentially leading to the decline of trees. The black stem borer is native to eastern Asia, but is an invasive species in Europe and North America. This species carries and feeds on associated ambrosia fungus, Ambrosiella grosmanniae.
Platypus quercivorus, the oak ambrosia beetle, is a species of weevil and pest of broad-leaved trees. This species is most commonly known for vectoring the fungus responsible for excessive oak dieback in Japan since the 1980s. It is found in Japan, India, Indonesia, New Guinea, and Taiwan.
Xyleborus dispar is a species of bark beetle commonly called the Pear blight beetle, or the European shothole borer. It is an invasive species in North America, and can be a pest in orchards and forests throughout its range.
Seigler Mountain is a mountain in the Mayacamas Mountains of the Northern California Coast Ranges. It is in Lake County, California.
Euwallacea interjectus is a species of ambrosia beetle in the species complex called Euwallacea fornicatus. It is native to Asia but has been introduced to the Western hemisphere over the last century.