Emerald ash borer
| Emerald Ash Borer | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Coleoptera |
| Family: | Buprestidae |
| Genus: | Agrilus |
| Species: | A. planipennis |
| Binomial name | |
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Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire, 1888 |
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| Synonyms | |
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Agrilus planipennis, commonly known as the emerald ash borer (EAB), is a green jewel beetle native to eastern Asia that feeds on ash species. In its native range, it is typically found at low densities and is not considered a significant pest. Outside its native range, it is an invasive species and is highly destructive to ash trees native to northwest Europe and North America. Prior to EAB being found in North America, very little was known about EAB in its native range; this has resulted in much of the research on its biology being focused in North America. Local governments in North America are attempting to control it by monitoring its spread, diversifying tree species, insecticides, and biological control.
The native range of the emerald ash borer is temperate northeastern Asia, which includes Russia, Mongolia, northern China, Japan, and Korea. It is invasive in North America where it has a core population in Michigan and surrounding states and provinces. Populations are more scattered outside the core area, and the edges of its known distribution range north to the upper peninsula of Michigan, south to northern Louisiana, west to Colorado, and east to Massachusetts
In northern Europe, a population was found in Moscow, Russia in 2003. This population has spread west to Sweden as of 2016 at 40 km (25 mi) per year.
Adults are a bright metallic green. Elytra are typically a darker green, but can also have copper hues. EAB is the only North American species of Agrilus with a bright red upper abdomen when viewed with the wings and elytra spread. The species also has a small spine found at the tip of the abdomen and serrate antennae that begin at the fourth antennal segment. The French priest and naturalist Armand David collected a specimen of the emerald ash borer during one of the trips he took through imperial China in the 1860s and 1870s. He found the beetle in Beijing and sent it back to France, where a brief description by the entomologist Léon Fairmaire was published in the Revue d'Entomologie in 1888.
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Wikipedia