Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Type: Article
Published: 2023-08-08
Page range: 289-297
Abstract views: 743
PDF downloaded: 62

Uncharted Territories: First report of Euwallacea fornicatus (Eichhoff) in South America with new reproductive hosts records.

Universidad de Buenos Aires; Facultad de Agronomía; Departamento de Ingeniería Agrícola y Uso de la Tierra; Cátedra de Física; Argentina; INMIBO-CONICET-UBA; Universidad de Buenos Aires; Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Lab. de Micología y Fitopa- tología; Argentina; CONICET – Universidad de Luján; Departamento de Tecnología; Laboratorio de Fitopatología; Argentina
School of Forest; Fisheries; and Geomatics Sciences; University of Florida; Gainesville; Florida 32611; United States; Florida State Collection of Arthropods; FDACS-DPI; Gainesville; Florida; 32611; United States
Texas A&M Forest Service; Austin; Texas; United States
Coleoptera invasive species forest pests emerging threat ambrosia especies invasoras plagas forestalas plaga emergente

Abstract

We report the presence of the invasive ambrosia beetle, Euwallacea fornicatus (Eichhoff, 1868), for the first time in South America. The identity is established by morphological and molecular methods, although the sequences suggest that it represents a separate haplotype from the populations that have caused significant damage in South Africa, Israel, and California, and is most phylogenetically similar to specimens from Asia and greenhouses in Europe. This pest is one of the most successful invaders, causing high economic and ecological impacts in the regions where it is introduced. Our records are from the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, one of the most populated and largest port cities in South America, where attacks by this beetle are present on a wide range of living street trees. The large number of trees attacked and the new records of reproductive host species suggest that the beetle is already established and widespread in the city’s urban forest. This context implies that the beetle may pose a threat to the urban and natural environment, as well as to the forests and fruit production of the region.

Informamos la presencia del escarabajo invasor de ambrosía, Euwallacea fornicatus (Eichhoff, 1868), por primera vez en Sudamérica. La identificación se estableció mediante métodos morfológicos y moleculares, si bien las secuencias sugieren que representa un haplotipo distinto de las poblaciones que han causado daños significativos en Sudáfrica, Israel y California, resulta filogenéticamente más similar a especímenes de Asia e invernaderos de Europa. Esta plaga es una de las especies invasoras más exitosas, causando altos impactos económicos y ecológicos en las regiones donde es introducida. Nuestros registros provienen de la ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina, una de las ciudades portuarias más pobladas y grandes de Sudamérica, donde los ataques de este coleóptero están presentes en una amplia diversidad de especies pertenecientes al arbolado urbano. El gran número de árboles atacados y los nuevos registros de especies hospedadoras reproductoras sugieren que el coleóptero ya está establecido y extendido en el bosque urbano de la ciudad. Este contexto implica que el coleóptero puede suponer una amenaza para el medio urbano y natural, así como para los bosques y la producción frutícola de la región.

 

References

  1. Brockerhoff, E.G. & Liebhold, A.M. (2017) Ecology of forest insect invasions. Biological Invasions, 19, 3141–3159. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-017-1514-1
  2. Carrillo, D., Duncan, R.E. & Peña, J.E. (2012) Ambrosia beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) that breed in avocado wood in Florida. Florida Entomologist, 95, 573–579. https://doi.org/10.1653/024.095.0306
  3. Carrillo, D., Cruz, L.F., Kendra, P.E., Narvaez, T.I., Montgomery, W.S., Monterroso, A., de Grave, C. & Cooperband, M.F. (2016) Distribution, pest status and fungal associates of Euwallacea nr. fornicatus in Florida avocado groves. Insects, 7, 55. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects7040055
  4. Danthanarayana, W. (1968) The distribution and host-range of the shot-hole borer (Xyleborus fornicatus Eichh.) of tea. Tea Quarterly, 39, 61–69.
  5. Eggers, H. (1923) Neue indomalayische Borkenkäfer (Ipidae). Zoologische Mededelingen, 7, 129–220.
  6. Eichhoff, W.J. (1868) Neue amerikanische Borkenkäfer-Gattungen und Arten. Berliner Entomologische Zeitschrift, 12, 145– 152. https://doi.org/10.1002/mmnd.18680120213
  7. EPPO (2023) European and Mediterranean plant protection organization (EPPO) global database. Available from: https://gd.eppo.intgd.eppo.int (accessed 30 May 2023)
  8. Eskalen, A., Gonzalez, A., Wang, D.H., Twizeyimana, M., Mayorquin, S.J. & Lynch, S.C. (2012) First report of a Fusarium sp. and its vector tea shot hole borer (Euwallacea fornicatus) causing Fusarium dieback on avocado in California. Plant Disease, 96, 1070. https://10.1094/PDIS-03-12-0276-PDN
  9. GCBA [Gobierno de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires] (2018) Census of urban tree population 2018. Available from: https://buenosaires.gob.ar/noticias/hay-mas-arboles-en-la-ciudad-y-sus-copas-cubren-un-30-de-la-superficie-portena (accessed 30 May 2023)
  10. Gomez, D.F., Skelton, J., Steininger, M.S., Stouthamer, R., Rugman-Jones, P., Sittichaya, W., Rabaglia, R.J. & Hulcr, J. (2018) Species delineation within the Euwallacea fornicatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) complex revealed by morphometric and phylogenetic analyses. Insect Systematics and Diversity, 2, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1093/isd/ixy018
  11. Gomez, D.F., Lin, W., Gao, L. & Li, Y. (2019) New host plant records for the Euwallacea fornicatus (Eichhoff) species complex (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) across its natural and introduced distribution. Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology, 22, 338–340. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aspen.2019.01.013
  12. Hughes, M.A., Riggins, J.J., Koch, F.H., Cognato, A.I., Anderson, C., Formby, J.P., Dreaden, T.J., Ploetz, R.C. & Smith, J.A. (2017) No rest for the laurels: symbiotic invaders cause unprecedented damage to southern USA forests. Biological Invasions, 19, 2143–2157. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-017-1427-z
  13. Hulcr, J., Dole, S.A., Beaver, R.A. & Cognato, A.I. (2007) Cladistic review of generic taxonomic characters in Xyleborina (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae). Systematic Entomology, 32, 568–584. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3113.2007.00386.x
  14. Jordal, B., Beaver R.A. & Kirkendall, L.R. (2001) Breaking taboos in the tropics: incest promotes colonization by wood-boring beetles. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 10, 345–357. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1466-822X.2001.00242.x
  15. Katoh, K. & Standley, D.M. (2013) MAFFT multiple sequence alignment software version 7: Improvements in performance and usability. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 30, 772–780. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/mst010
  16. Kearse, M., Moir, R., Wilson, A., Stones-Havas, S., Cheung, M., Sturrock, S., Buxton, S., Cooper, A., Markowitz, S., Duran, C., Thierer, T., Ashton, B., Meintjes, P. & Drummond, A. (2012) Geneious Basic: An integrated and extendable desktop software platform for the organization and analysis of sequence data. Bioinformatics, 28, 1647–1649. https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/bts199
  17. Landi, L., Braccini, C.L., Knížek, M., Pereyra, V.A. & Marvaldi, A.E. (2019) A newly detected exotic ambrosia beetle in Argentina: Euwallacea interjectus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae). Florida Entomologist, 102, 240–242. https://doi.org/10.1653/024.102.0141
  18. Mendel, Z., Protasov, A., Sharon, M., Zveibil, A., Yehuda, S. ben, O’Donnell, K., Rabaglia, R., Wysoki, M. & Freeman, S. (2012) An Asian ambrosia beetle Euwallacea fornicatus and its novel symbiotic fungus Fusarium sp. pose a serious threat to the Israeli avocado industry. Phytoparasitica, 40, 235–238. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12600-012-0223-7
  19. Owens, D., Cruz, L.F., Montgomery, W.S., Narvaez, T.I., Schnell, E.Q., Tabanca, N., Duncan, R.E., Carrillo, D. & Kendra, P.E. (2018) Host range expansion and increasing damage potential of Euwallacea nr. fornicatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in Florida. Florida Entomologist, 101, 229–236. https://doi.org/10.1653/024.101.0212
  20. Paap, T., de Beer, Z.W., Migliorini, D., Nel, W.J. & Wingfield, M.J. (2018) The polyphagous shot hole borer (PSHB) and its fungal symbiont Fusarium euwallaceae: a new invasion in South Africa. Australasian Plant Pathology, 47, 231–237. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13313-018-0545-0
  21. Price, M.N., Dehal, P.S. & Arkin, A.P. (2010) FastTree 2—Approximately maximum-likelihood trees for large alignments. PLoS ONE, 5 (3), e9490. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0009490
  22. Rugman-Jones, P.F., Au, M., Ebrahimi, V., Eskalen, A., Gillett, C.P.D.T., Honsberger, D., Husein, D., Wright, M.G., Yousuf, F. & Stouthamer, R. (2020) One becomes two: second species of the Euwallacea fornicatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) species complex is established on two Hawaiian islands. PeerJ, 8, e9987. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.9987
  23. Ruzzier, E., Ortis, G., Vallotto, D. Faccoli, M., Martinez-Sañudo, I. & Marchioro, M. (2023) The first full host plant dataset of Curculionidae Scolytinae of the world: tribe Xyleborini LeConte, 1876. Scientific Data, 10, 166. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02083-5
  24. Schedl, K.E. (1951) Fauna Indomalayaensis, I. Tijdschrift voor Entomologie, 93, 41–98.
  25. Schuler, H., Witkowski, R., van de Vossenberg, B., Hoppe, B., Mittelbach, M., Bukovinszki, T., Schwembacher, S., van de Meulengraaf, B., Lange, U., Rode, S., Andriolo, A., Bełka, M., Mazur, A. & Battisti, A. (2022) Recent invasion and eradication of two members of the Euwallacea fornicatus species complex (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) from tropical greenhouses in Europe. Biological Invasions, 25, 299–307. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-022-02929-w
  26. Smith, S.M. & Cognato, A.I. (2014) A taxonomic monograph of nearctic Scolytus Geoffroy (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Scolytinae). ZooKeys, 450, 1–182. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.450.7452
  27. Smith, S.M. & Cognato, A.I. (2021) A Revision of the Neotropical genus Coptoborus Hopkins (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Scolytinae, Xyleborini). ZooKeys, 1044, 609. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.144.62246
  28. Smith, S.M., Gomez, D.F., Beaver, R., Hulcr, J. & Cognato, A.I. (2019) Reassessment of the species in the Euwallacea fornicatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) complex after the rediscovery of the “lost type specimen. Insects, 10, 261. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects10090261
  29. Smith, S.M., Beaver, R.A. & Cognato, A.I. (2020) A monograph of the Xyleborini (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Scolytinae) of the Indochinese Peninsula (except Malaysia) and China. ZooKeys, 983, 1–442. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.983.52630
  30. Storer, C., Payton, A., McDaniel, S., Jordal, B. & Hulcr, J. (2017) Cryptic genetic variation in an inbreeding and cosmopolitan pest, Xylosandrus crassiusculus, revealed using ddRADseq. Ecology and Evolution, 7, 10974–10986. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3625
  31. Stouthamer, R., Rugman-Jones, P., Thu, P.Q., Eskalen, A., Thibault, T., Hulcr, J., Wang, L.J., Jordal, B.H., Chen, C.Y., Cooperband, M., Lin, C.S., Kamata, N., Lu, S.S., Masuya, H., Mendel, Z., Rabaglia, R., Sanguansub, S., Shih, H.H., Sittichaya, W. & Zong, S. (2017) Tracing the origin of a cryptic invader: phylogeography of the Euwallacea fornicatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) species complex. Agricultural and Forest Entomology, 19, 366–375. https://doi.org/10.1111/afe.12215
  32. Wood, S.L. (1975) New synonymy and new species of American bark beetles (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) Part II. Great Basin Naturalist, 35, 391–401.
  33. Wood, S.L. (2007) Bark and ambrosia beetles of South America (Coleoptera, Scolytidae). Brigham Young University, M.L. Bean Life Science Museum, Provo, 900 pp., 230 pls. https://doi.org/10.1134/S001387380902016X