First Incidence ofSinoxylon Indicum and Sinoxylon Sudanicum(Coleoptera: Bostrichidae) in Mississippi

Abstract

Auger beetles (Coleoptera: Bostrichidae), also known as false powderpost beetles, are serious pests of trees, forest products, agricultural crops, and stored vegetable products in most regions of the world (Fisher 1950; Lawrence 2010). There are approximately 570 species in 89 genera worldwide (Lawrence 2010), including approximately 73 native species found in North America (Ivie 2002). Most woodboring bostrichids obtain nutrition from starch, enabling many species to utilize almost any dry wood material from an enormous host range (Ivie 2002). The frequency of non-native bostrichid interceptions at ports of entry and storage facilities around the world has increased during the last decade (Teixeira et al. 2002; Ratti 2004; Filho et al. 2006; Aukema et al. 2011; EPPO 2011; Price et al. 2011). Bostrichids, along with many other woodboring insects, are often accidentally introduced inside solid wood packing material in containerized cargo (Haack 2006). The bostrichid genus Sinoxylon Duftschmid contains 52 species, all of which are native to Asia, Africa, and Southern Europe (Borowski & Wegrzynowicz 2007) and are typically not considered primary pests. Sinoxylon species utilize a wide variety of hosts, including numerous trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants, and bamboos (Filho et al. 2006). Sinoxylon damage is typically caused by the boring of adults and larvae in the stems, branches, or twigs of dead, damaged, or stressed hosts (Nair 2007). One species has even been known to damage lead cables (Filho et al. 2006). Species of Sinoxylon are frequently intercepted in the U.S.A., representing 32% of bostrichid interceptions between 1985 and 2000 (Haack 2006; Price et al. 2011). There have been 289 Sinoxylon interceptions in the U.S.A. between 2007 and 2012 (Brian Saunders, USDA-APHIS-PPQ, Cape Canaveral, Florida, personal communication). In the continental U.S.A., there are 2 established non-native species of Sinoxylon. Sinoxylon anale Lesne and S. conigerum Gerstacker are both established in southern Florida (Peck & Thomas 1998). Another species, S. ceratoniae (L.), may be established in California (Ivie 2002). Sinoxylon anale Lesne is the most economically important and most commonly intercepted species of Sinoxylon, typically arriving in solid wood packing materials (Fisher 1950; Argaman 1987; Teixeira et al. 2002; Sittachaya et al. 2009; Beaver et al. 2011). Sinoxylon anale is native to the Indomalaya and Palearctic ecozones, where it attacks more than 70 species of plants. In the United States, Price et al. (2011) reported 2 interceptions of S. anale in Georgia in 2004 and 2010, both arriving from India in solid wood packing materials. Borowski and Wegrzynowicz (2007) list 3 other species, S. japonicum Lesne, S. sexdentatum (Olivier) (as S. muricatum (L.)), and S. ruficorne Fahaeus, as introduced into the United States, but these records are apparently based on the interceptions reported by Fisher (1950) that do not represent established populations. On 29 Aug 2011 in West Point, Mississippi, United States (N 33°36’25” W 88°39’01”), a substantial infestation of larval and adult Sinoxylon indicum Lesne (Fig. 1A) and S. sudanicum Lesne (Fig. 1B) was discovered in wooden crates and pallets that originated from Pakistan. It is not known if the wood used to construct the crates originated in Pakistan, or whether the wood was treated according to IPPC international standards