Bacteria Associated with Larvae and Adults of the Asian Longhorned Beetle (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae)

Abstract

Bacteria representing several genera were isolated from integument and alimentary tracts of live Asian longhorned beetle, Anaplophora glabripennis (Motschulsky), larvae and adults. Insects examined were from infested tree branches collected from sites in New York and Illinois. Staphylococcus sciuri (Kloos) was the most common isolate associated with adults, from 13 of 19 examined, whereas members of the Enterobacteriaceae dominated the isolations from larvae. Leclercia adecarboxylata (Leclerc), a putative pathogen of Colorado potato beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata (Say), was found in 12 of 37 larvae examined. Several opportunistic human pathogens, including S. xylosus (Schleifer and Kloos), S. intermedius (Hajek), S. hominis (Kloos and Schleifer), Pantoea agglomerans (Ewing and Fife), Serratia proteamaculans (Paine and Stansfield) and Klebsiella oxytoca (Flugge) also were isolated from both larvae and adults. One isolate, found in 1 adult and several larvae, was identified as Tsukamurella inchonensis (Yassin) also an opportunistic human pathogen and possibly of Korean origin.. We have no evidence that any of the microorganisms isolated are pathogenic for the Asian longhorned beetle.