Abstract
This paper reports a non-native Agrilus wood-boring jewel beetle reared from a stressed and non-native European beech (Fagus sylvatica) tree growing in New York City, USA. Results of two analyses using 759 DNA barcodes of Agrilus corroborate the morphology-based interpretation that this is the first North American record of an unnamed species from the A. roscidus species-group native to the Western Palaearctic. Taxonomy of the entire species-group requires revision, therefore we postpone formal description of the new species and refer to it as Agrilus sp. 9895. This is the 12th non-native Agrilus established in North America. Prior to our study, members of the A. roscidus species-group were not known to develop in Fagus, therefore we hypothesise whether our record is a host plant shift linked to the human-mediated transatlantic dispersal, or a case of an elusive beetle escaping detection in Fagus in its unknown native range. All 759 herein analysed DNA barcodes of Agrilus (including, when present, specimen images and georeferences) are available online at dx.doi.org/10.5883/DS-VGDS010.
Highlights
This paper was triggered by the detection of an unusual looking wood-boring jewel beetle (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) found in New York City (NYC), USA
Grouping of all three sequenced NYC specimens in Analysis 2 (A2) is consistent with the results of analysis Analysis 1 (A1), while the bootstrap support for monophyletic ARSG is 92%
Since the beginning of the millennium, alien Agrilus are discovered in North America with the scattering rate of one in about every three years
Summary
This paper was triggered by the detection of an unusual looking wood-boring jewel beetle (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) found in New York City (NYC), USA. Most infamous of the new arrivals is Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire, 1888, native to East Asia and colloquially known as “emerald ash borer” This species has invaded North America (Haack et al, 2002) and Europe (Baranchikov et al, 2008) causing widespread mortality of ash and was assessed as “the most costly biological invasion by an exotic forest insect to date” (Herms & McCullough, 2014). The reported NYC Agrilus was attacking a nonnative tree growing in the heart of a large urban conglomerate not too distant from a major international trade port. These observations were consistent with a hypothesis that the unknown NYC Agrilus might be yet another unwanted human-mediated addition to the Nearctic fauna, potentially capable of inflicting damage to an important urban tree in parts of North America
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