Citrus long-horned beetle

The citrus long-horned beetle (Anoplophora chinensis) is a long-horned beetle native to Japan, China, Korea, and Southeast Asia where it is considered a serious pest.[1] Several countries in Europe had been infested with this insect in the past, including Italy, Switzerland, Turkey, France, Germany, and Croatia.[1]

Citrus long-horned beetle
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Family: Cerambycidae
Subfamily: Lamiinae
Genus: Anoplophora
Species:
A. chinensis
Binomial name
Anoplophora chinensis
(Forster, 1771)
Synonyms
  • Cerambyx farinosus Houttuyn, 1766 Homo.
  • Cerambyx chinensis Forster, 1771
  • Lamia punctator Fabricius, 1776
  • Cerambyx pulchricornis Voet, 1778 Unav.
  • Cerambyx sinensis Gmelin in Linnaeus, 1790
  • Calloplophora abbreviata Thomson, 1865
  • Calloplophora afflicta Thomson, 1865
  • Calloplophora luctuosa Thomson, 1865
  • Calloplophora malasiaca Thomson, 1865
  • Anoplophora malasiaca (Thomson, 1865)
  • Calloplophora sepulcralis Thomson, 1865
  • Anoplophora sepulchralis (Thomson, 1865) Lapsus calami
  • Melanauster perroudi Pic 1953

Each female citrus long-horned beetle can lay up to 200 eggs after mating; each egg is individually deposited in tree bark.[1] After the beetle larva hatches, it chews into the tree, forming a tunnel that is then used as a place for pupation.[1] From egg-laying to pupation and adult emergence can take twelve to eighteen months.

Infestations by the beetle can kill many different types of hardwood trees including Citrus, pecan, apple, Australian pine, Hibiscus, sycamore, willow, pear, mulberry, chinaberry, poplar, Litchi, kumquat, Japanese red cedar, oak, and Ficus.

In America

The citrus long-horned beetle poses an unprecedented threat to the environment in North America because it attacks healthy trees and has no natural enemies. Not only are greenbelts, urban landscapes and backyard trees threatened, but also orchards, forests, and endangered salmon, and wildlife habitat.[2]

The citrus long-horned beetle was first discovered in the U.S. in April 1999, when a single beetle was found in a nursery greenhouse in Athens, Georgia on certain bonsai trees imported from China. More seriously, the beetle was later discovered on 9 August 2001, at a Tukwila, Washington nursery near Seattle in a shipment from Korea of 369 bonsai maple trees. Three of the beetles were captured at the nursery, including a mated female ready to lay eggs, but when the bonsai trees were dissected, eight larvae exit tunnels were found, indicating that five more might have escaped into the surrounding community. Those five could lead to thousands of others because females lay 200 eggs each. Because this beetle may have other outlying infestations that are yet to be discovered, it is recommended not to move firewood,[3] even in areas with no known infestations.

UK
Anoplophora chinensis

The beetle was found in several sightings in Essex in 2008.[4]

See also

References
  1. "Citrus longhorn beetle". Ministry for Primary Industries. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  2. "Gallery of Pests". Don't Move Firewood. Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  3. "Don't Move Firewood". Retrieved 30 September 2011.
  4. "Presence Of The Citrus Longhorn Beetle In UK". Archived from the original on September 6, 2009. Retrieved February 16, 2011.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.