Invasive Cerambycid Pests and Biosecurity Measures

Abstract

Longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae) in general, and some species in particular, have increased in importance for national and regional plant protection agencies over recent decades. Expensive eradication campaigns have been carried out in order to eliminate some longhorn beetles. For example, the cost of eradication campaigns undertaken between 1996 and 2013 against the cerambycid Anoplophora glabripennis (Motschulsky), commonly called the Asian longhorn beetle, were estimated to have exceeded US$537 million for all U.S. infestations in Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Ohio (Rhonda Santos, USDA-APHIS, personal communication Feb 2014). Although other taxa—such as fungal pathogens [e.g., ash dieback, Hymenoscyphus fraxineus (T. Kowalski) Baral, Queloz, Hosoya, comb. nov., in Europe (Pautasso et al. 2013; Baral 2014)] and the buprestid emerald ash borer, Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire, in the United States (Kovacs et al. 2010)—have in some cases caused greater damage; the potential to counter outbreaks of some cerambycids is often larger in part due to their relatively slow rate of spread. The possibility of eradicating invasive populations of longhorn beetles has provided the justi cation for abatement efforts in North America and Europe against the Asian Anoplophora species, some of which have been successful (Haack et al. 2010).