Buprestidae Research Articles

A new species of Rhadinobracon Szépligeti (Hymenoptera: Braconidae: Braconinae) from Spain, with probable host record

Rhadinobracon hispanicus sp. n. is described and illustrated from specimens reared from dead and dying wood of Quercus rotundifolia Lamarck collected in Huelva province, S. W. Spain. The only xylophagous insects also reared were the buprestid beetle Acmaeodera octodecimguttata (Piller & Mitterpacker) (Buprestidae), which is considered to be almost certainly the host. Rhadinobracon is largely Afrotropical, Middle Eastern and Indian in distribution and the new species represents a large expansion of the known range of the genus. The new species exhibits considerable sexual dimorphism in respect of the hind leg, and an earlier male specimen (now lost) from a different locality in Spain clearly, from photographs and an outline description, belongs to the same species.

Potential Ecological Distribution of the Beetle Agrilus mali Matsumura (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) in China under Three Climate Change Scenarios, with Consequences for Commercial and Wild Apple Forests.

The apple jewel beetle (AJB), Agrilus mali Matsumura (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), is a dangerous pest of commercial apple orchards across China, the largest apple production country in the world, and has recently become invasive in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of northwestern China, where wild apple forests also occur. This pest poses a serious threat to apple production and wild apple forests throughout the world. Global warming is expected to change the geographical distribution of A. mali in China, but the extent of this is unknown. Based on empirical data from 1951 to 2000, a MaxEnt model was used to forecast the ecological distribution of A. mali under three different climate scenarios projected in the fifth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The results showed that the most important variables were the maximum temperature of November, precipitation in January, and minimum temperatures in April. Under all climate scenarios, the forecasted suitable regions for A. mali in China will expand northward in the 2050s and 2070s. The forecasted highly suitable regions will be 1.11-1.34 times larger than they are currently, and their central distributions will be 61.57-167.59 km further north. These findings suggest that the range and damage caused by A. mali in China will increase dramatically in the future. Monitoring and management measures should be implemented urgently to protect both the commercial apple industry and wild apple resources.

An extraordinary jewel beetle species (Perotis unicolor (Olivier, 1790)) from Northeastern Algeria: re-discovery of this species in North Africa after more than half a century

Jewel beetles (Buprestidae), also known as metallic wood-boring beetles, predominantly inhabit forest environments. Several taxa within this family hold heritage status in both broadleaf and conifer forests. The larvae of most species undergo development within the inner, living part of tree bark, while some species can behave as opportunistic pests, causing considerable damage to weakened host trees. Notably, in Algeria, Lamprodila festiva on Barbary thuja (Tetraclinis articulata), and Agrilus biguttatus on oak trees were recognized as significant pests. Given the potential impact of climate change on forest jewel beetles, there were two key concerns: i) many of these species prefer warmer climates, making them thermophilic, and shifts in temperature patterns can affect their distribution and abundance, ii) following severe droughts, forest declines and diebacks may occur, offering an opportunity for these beetles to exploit weakened trees. In the context of this study, a Buprestidae (Coleoptera) species was re-discovered in the northeastern region of Algeria within holm oak (Quercus ilex) shrub lands, Perotis unicolor (Olivier, 1790). This is an important finding as it has not been reported in the fauna of North Africa for more than half a century.

The genome sequence of a jewel beetle, Agrilus biguttatus (Fabricius, 1776).

We present a genome assembly from an individual female Agrilus biguttatus (jewel beetle; Arthropoda; Insecta; Coleoptera; Buprestidae). The genome sequence spans 368.10 megabases. Most of the assembly is scaffolded into 11 chromosomal pseudomolecules, including the X sex chromosome. The mitochondrial genome has also been assembled and is 17.41 kilobases in length.

A story of becoming a horticultural threat, cypress jewel beetle Lamprodila festiva (Coleoptera, Buprestidae): analytical approach of its European escalation based on bibliographical sources

The cypress jewel beetle, Lamprodila festiva, as one of the most destructive local invasive pests in Europe is currently an extreme threat to the coniferous Cupressaceae trees. The beetle spread at an unprecedented pace and intensity and poses a threat to many countries. Our study aimed to map the Palearctic distribution of L. festiva and measure the dispersal's pace and directions. Besides, one of our goals was visualising the adult’s seasonal activity and their host plant choice preference. A meta-analytical assessment was carried out to answer these questions based on the related bibliographical sources available in scientific databases. Our results confirmed that L. festiva has spread with extraordinary speed and success across the western Palaearctic areas, where the consequences of global warming have provided optimal conditions. The first population successful reproduction was started at five well-differentiated natural reserve areas across Europe in a latent manner. The flight season of L. festiva typically occurs from May to July, with the peaks varying depending on the area of distribution. Our studies have shown that L. festiva is a typical oligophagous pest, favouring certain species within its range of host plants. Thus, the genera Thuja, Platycladus and Juniperus species are most affected by its damage. Starting from its exceptional distribution characteristics, realising biological explanatory and applied protection research related to this species can become an urgent expectation in the future.

Bionomy Description of Julodis speculifer Laporte, 1835 in South Iraq

Objective: The beetle family Buprestidae (jewel beetles) includes about 15,000 species and has a number Worldwide ‎distribution. Julodis speculifer is one of these species, for the first time Recorded in south Basrah province. Methods: Collected specimens were from March 2022 to November 2022, AL-Zubair region, The main characters adopted: compound eyes, carving face, antennal cavities, flagellum, scape, pronotum, scutellum, elytra, membrane wing, abdomen, and ‎male genitalia. Results: Body adult beetles Large sized, elongated, oval in shape, resembling a boat, slightly convex at the dorsal, brown to shiny copper, with white spots in the form of parallel lines on all parts of the dorsal surface body, all parts of the body are covered with a light white fluff. The male is smaller in size than the female. Conclusions: They were diagnosed did not have traits that differed from the species recorded in Kuwait, but different subspecies in Saudi Arabia.

Notes on jewel beetles (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) in Türkiye

New data are presented on the distribution of 58 species and subspecies in the European and Asiatic part of Türkiye, which belong to 16 genera and six subfamilies of jewel beetles (Coleoptera: Buprestidae). Notably, this research confirms the presence of Anthaxia (Anthaxia) fulgurans (Schrank, 1789), Eurythyrea quercus (Herbst, 1780) and E. aurata (Pallas, 1776) within the Turkish fauna. Anthaxia (A.) semicuprea Küster, 1851 is new for the European Türkiye. The exact localities in this country of Chalcophora intermedia intermedia (Rey, 1890), Cyphosoma paganettii Obenberger, 1914, C. veselyi Obenberger, 1925, Dicerca amphibia Marseul, 1865 and D. moesta (Fabricius, 1792) are reported for the first time. Some distinguishing characters of Agrilus (Quercuagrilus) graminis Kiesenwetter, 1857 and A. (Q.) hastulifer (Ratzeburg, 1837) allowing their better identification are given as well.

A statistical overview of the research history of the superfamily Buprestoidea (Coleoptera)

A review of selected bibliographic, nomenclatural and taxonomic aspects of the study of Buprestoidea (families Schizopodidae and Buprestoidae) is presented from the Linne‘s time to the recent (1758-2023). All data are represented by diagrams. The number of documented taxonomic publications related to Buprestoidea is 11,629 with the annual largest of 192 publications appearing in 2007. The most prolific author in history is Obenberger with 455 publications. Available genus-group names include 256 invalid names and 777 valid names; the latter consist of 520 generic and 257 subgeneric names. Most genus-group names start with P, C or A and the four oldest valid ones are Buprestis, Trachys, Aphanisticus and Agrilus. Most genus-group names were proposed in 1864 (38 names) and in the period 1918-1937 (170 names). Names of 129 accepted genera or subgenera have invalid names (synonyms). A total of 137 authors contributed to generic-group names with the arithmetic mean 7.5 names per author. A total of 23,389 available species-group names exist in the superfamily Buprestoidea among which 6,551 (28%) are invalid and 16,838 (72%) are valid; the latter consist of 15,921 (94.6%) specific names and 917 (5.4%) subspecific names. The most frequent species-group name is strandi with 80 occurrences. Most species-group names begins with c, s or a. Most frequent species-group name 3-letter prefix is sub- (234 occurrences). The highest number of species-group names was proposed in 1924 (721 names) and in the period 1918-1937 (6,124 names). The global arithmetic mean of currently valid to invalid species-group names per year is 69.8%. A total of 660 authors contributed to the species-group names with the arithmetic mean is 35.4 names per author. Obenberger with 5,395 species-group names is by far the most prolific author. The subfamily Agrilinae has most genera (205, 39.4% of valid genera of Buprestoidea). Two tribes with the largest number of genera are also from subfamily Agrilinae: Coraebini (131 genera) and Agrilini (44 genera). Among 520 accepted genera of Buprestoidea, 71 (13.6%) have subgenera. The superfamily Buprestoidea contains 15,921 accepted species, among which seven belong to the family Schizopodidae and the rest to the family Buprestidae. Almost half (7,282, 45.8%) of all species of Buprestoidea is from the three agriline tribes: Agrilini, Tracheini and Coraebini. The most speciose genus in Buprestoidea, and in the whole of Animalia, is Agrilus (3,431 species), followed by Sphenoptera (1,002). Chrysochroa fulminans (Fabricius, 1787) is the jewel beetle species with the highest number of recognized subspecies (18).

Efficacy of trapping protocols for Agrilus jewel beetles: a multi-country assessment

The genus Agrilus is one of the most diverse insect genera worldwide. The larval feeding activity causes extensive damage in both forests and orchards. In addition, more than 30 species have been introduced outside their native range so far, including the emerald ash borer Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire. Thus, the availability of efficient trapping protocols for early detection of Agrilus species at entry points is of utmost importance. In this study we tested whether trapping protocols developed for surveillance of A. planipennis in North America were also effective for other Agrilus species. In particular, through a multi-country assessment we compared the efficacy of detecting Agrilus species on: (i) green glue-coated prism traps vs. green Fluon-coated multi-funnel traps when baited with the green leaf volatile (Z)-3-hexenol or left unbaited; and (ii) green multi-panel traps vs. green multi-panel traps baited with dead adult Agrilus beetles (decoys). A total of 23,481 individuals from 45 Agrilus species were caught. Trap design significantly affected both species richness and abundance of Agrilus species in several of the countries where the trapping experiments were carried out, and green prism traps outperformed green multi-funnel traps in most cases. On the contrary, the addition of a (Z)-3-hexenol lure or dead adult beetle decoys on to traps did not improve trap catches. Our study highlights that reliable trap models to survey Agrilus species are already available, but also that there is the clear need to further investigate chemical ecology of Agrilus species to develop semiochemical lures that can improve detection efficacy.

The first occurrence of the genus Pristaulacus from the Late Miocene diatomitic maar of Sainte-Reine, Cantal, France (Hymenoptera, Aulacidae)

The first Miocene representative of the wasp genus Pristaulacus Kieffer, 1900, is described from the volcanic paleolake of Sainte-Reine in Cantal, France. Observable characters are identical to those of the extant Pristaulacus barbeyi (Ferrière, 1933), currently known from the southern and eastern Mediterranean regions and Iran and associated with mountainous fir forests where it is a parasitoid of buprestid beetles. Interestingly, the paleohabitat of the Sainte-Reine locality was a mountain paleolake surrounded by forests with firs (Abies Mill., Pinaceae) and with a rather cool climate, matching well with the occurrence of a species of Pristaulacus, phenetically at least, similar to P. barbeyi.

The Optimal Choice of Trap Type for the Recently Spreading Jewel Beetle Pests Lamprodila festiva and Agrilus sinuatus (Coleoptera, Buprestidae).

Two jewel beetle species native to Europe, the cypress jewel beetle, Lamprodila (Palmar, Ovalisia) festiva L. (Buprestidae, Coleoptera), and the sinuate pear tree borer, Agrilus sinuatus Olivier (Buprestidae, Coleoptera), are key pests of ornamental thuja and junipers and of orchard and ornamental rosaceous trees, respectively. Although chemical control measures are available, due to the beetles' small size, agility, and cryptic lifestyle at the larval stage, efficient tools for their detection and monitoring are missing. Consequently, by the time emerging jewel beetle adults are noticed, the trees are typically significantly damaged. Thus, the aim of this study was to initiate the development of monitoring traps. Transparent, light green, and purple sticky sheets and multifunnel traps were compared in field experiments in Hungary. Light green and transparent sticky traps caught more L. festiva and A. sinuatus jewel beetles than non-sticky multifunnel traps, regardless of the larger size of the colored surface of the funnel traps. Although light green sticky sheets turned out to be optimal for both species, using transparent sheets can reduce catches of non-target insects. The key to the effectiveness of sticky traps, despite their reduced suitability for quantitative comparisons, may lie in the behavioral responses of the beetles to the optical features of the traps.

Jewel beetle Anthaxia (Cratomerus) scorzonerae (Frivaldszky, 1837) (Coleoptera, Buprestidae) - a new species to the Russian fauna

The rst to the Russian fauna record of the jewel beetle Anthaxia ( Cratomerus ) scorzonerae (Frivaldszky, 1837) (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) from Volgograd Province and its comparison with the closely related A. ( C. ). diadema (Fischer von Waldheim, 1824) are presente d. The images of both species with photographs of the biotopes and map of locations of A. scorzonerae in Volgograd Province are given.

A new subgenus of the genus Sphenoptera Dejean, 1833 with re-description of S. epistomalis Obenberger, 1927 (Coleoptera, Buprestidae)

A new subgenus Clypeostetha subgen. n. is erected for the jewel beetle Sphenoptera epistomalis Obenberger, 1927 from North-Western and Western Kazakhs tan and northwestern Uzbekistan ( rst country record). Principal diagnostic characters of the new subgenus and illustrated re-description of S. epistomalis together with data on its distribution and host plant are presented. The main diagnostic character of Clypeostetha is the absence of the clypeal suture separating clypeus from frons in all other known Sphenopterini.

On the Occurrence and Distribution of the Buprestid Beetles (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) in Mizoram, North-East India

On the Occurrence and Distribution of the Buprestid Beetles (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) in Mizoram, North-East India

Impact of the leaf‐mining jewel beetle Hedwigiella jureceki on two forms of cat's claw creeper, Dolichandra unguis‐cati

AbstractThe impact assessment of a weed biocontrol agent offers insight into the potential of the agent and weed responses in long‐term weed management. The impact of the jewel beetle Hedwigiella jureceki Obenberger (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) and its first‐generation larvae on the long‐pod (LP) and short‐pod (SP) forms of cat's claw creeper, Dolichandra unguis‐cati (L.) L.G. Lohmann (Bignoniaceae) was studied by initiating one, two, or five pairs (male and female) of adults in a glasshouse experiment. With the higher density of adults, the number of leaves increased significantly, as did the numbers of dead leaves and larval mines, and the percentages of affected leaves (up to 40%), and damaged leaf areas (up to 60%). Plants with the five pairs of adults had fewer leaves and reduced dry weights (e.g., tuber biomass was reduced by 50.4–62.5%). Regardless of adult density, the dry weights of the leaves and tubers were lower in the SP form. Conversely, the LP form had fewer leaves (ca. 17% fewer) and slower shoot growth (mean ± SE = 46.3 ± 2.6 cm per week) than the SP form (66.5 ± 3.8 cm per week). However, the number of tubers was not affected by the plant form and adult density. Larval mines (262 ± 30), pupae (186 ± 17), and adults (144 ± 14) in LP form were higher than in SP form (243 ± 20, 167 ± 14, and 115 ± 11, respectively). Likewise, the average weight of adults that emerged on the LP form was higher. Therefore, H. jureceki impacted both LP and SP forms. The SP form showed a higher impact in terms of reduced tuber growth, and the LP form is anticipated to be harmed more in the long term as a higher number of H. jureceki offspring developed on it when competition for food was increased.

Contribution to the knowledge of jewel beetles (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) of the Aras River valley, Northеastern Turkey

Check list of seventy-eight species of jewel beetles (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) belonging to 21 genera of 12 tribes in five subfamilies, recorded from the Turkish part of Aras River valley is presented. Compared with the fauna of adjacent areas of Armenia and Nakhichevan (Azerbaijan), the diversity of jewel beetles is significantly impoverished what is resulted from strong anthropogenic impact. Aras valley jewel beetles are rather poorly known and that may also explain a relatively small number of species in the area. The core of the buprestid fauna of the Turkish part of Aras valley is mainly formed by Irano-Turanian (including nine endemic or subendemic Kuro-Araxian species), Irano-Turanian–East-Mediterranean, and European-Mediterranean elements with insignificant participation of Transpalaearctic, West Palaearctic and European elements. Based on the distributional patterns of buprestid species, it can be concluded that the border between Kura-Araxian and Front-Asian provinces of Irano-Turanian subregion in the Aras valley passes between the town of Kağızman and Karakurt village in Kars province, up to 1400–1500 m altitude. Some unique habitats, such as the Calligonum polygonoides L. dominated sandy desert at the foot of the Ağrı Dağı Mts in the vicinity of Aralık town, should be taken under state protection.

Temporal and spatial dynamics of the emerald ash borer invasion in Connecticut as shown by the native digging wasp Cerceris fumipennis (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae).

Detecting and monitoring populations of the invasive emerald ash borer (EAB) is crucial to successful management of the pest and evaluation of its ecological impacts. However, the beetle's cryptic habit makes accurate monitoring costly and time-consuming. Biosurveillance takes advantage of the foraging effort of a predatory wasp Cerceris fumipennis (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae). This native, solitary, ground-nesting hunting wasp hunts adult buprestid beetles to provision its brood cells. By intercepting the hunting wasps, we can learn which species of buprestids are in the surrounding forest. The resulting data provides information on the presence and relative abundance of invasive buprestids like EAB which can supplement other monitoring efforts. In this paper we share results of ten years of biosurveillance surveys of the EAB in Connecticut. Among 112 sites, we observed EAB populations; from first detection, through the population peak and then through to the population crash, matching patterns observed in other regions of the United States. We also observed the spread of the EAB relative abundance as it moved through the state following an invasion front starting in New Haven, Co. The average time from first detection to population crash was nine years. On average, populations peaked three years after first detection, and remained at peak levels for three to four years. Population decline was gradual and took another three to four years. Notably, no evidence of a second introduction to Connecticut was seen with proportional abundance increasing over time after expanding outward from the introduction point. These results corroborate other traditional monitoring efforts in the eastern U.S. and provide independent validation of predicted population dynamics in ash stands.

Wear and corrosion properties of CP-titanium coated with Chitin–Ceramic nanocomposites

Commercial pure titanium (Cp-Ti) is widely used in many industrial and biomedical fields. However, depending on the conditions of use of Cp-Ti, it exhibits low wear and corrosion resistance, thus reducing its service life. Therefore, in this study, the cuticle of the Japanese jewel beetle (Chrysochroa rajah) was morphologically examined and duplex coatings were produced by dip coating technique on Cp-Ti to provide protection against wear and corrosion by imitating the layered structure of the Chrysochroa rajah cuticle. Duplex coated surfaces were obtained by dip coating technique with chitin as the first layer and TiO2, SiC and h-BN layers as the second layer, respectively. Electrochemical corrosion properties were investigated under Simulated Body Fluid (SBF) solution. In electrochemical corrosion tests, open circuit potential (OCP), electrochemical polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analysis were performed. Wear tests were performed in dry and SBF solution, and tribocorrosion tests were performed in SBF solution. The chitin + h-BN duplex coated surface has the highest corrosion potential (Ecorr) of -14 mV and the lowest corrosion current density (icorr) of 1.060 × 10−9 A cm−2. In addition, chitin + h-BN duplex coated surface has the highest corrosion resistance among duplex coated surfaces with corrosion rate of 4.601 × 10−4 mpy. In the wear test results, the lowest wear rate was 0.12 ± 0.011 × 10−3 mm3/Nm in dry environment and 0.28 ± 0.017 × 10−3 mm3/Nm in SBF solution on chitin + TiO2 duplex coated surface. In addition, the highest surface hardness was obtained as 4 ± 0.28 GPa on the chitin + TiO2 duplex coated surface. As a result of the tribocorrosion tests performed in SBF solution, the highest resistance was obtained on the chitin + TiO2 duplex coated surface. The chitin layer exhibited low corrosion, wear and tribocorrosion performance. Due to the effect of different electrical charge transfer and different hardness of organic and ceramic powders used in coatings, the coated surfaces improved the electrochemical, abrasion and tribocorrosion properties of Cp-Ti.

Neuroanatomy and functional morphology of peripheral receptor neurones with direct projections into the protocerebrum of the brains of the locust and a jewel beetle

AbstractProjections from peripheral receptors directly into the protocerebrum of insects have only been little studied. Retrograde staining of nerves from the antennae, maxillary palps and legs has revealed some fibres that project into the central areas of the protocerebrum. In the case of the antennae and palps, it was not known which receptors were responsible for these projections. In the legs of locusts, multipolar neurons (MN) with characteristic terminal dendritic masses (TDM) have been described to project into a neuropil called “superior ventral inferior protocerebrum” (SVIP). However, such neurons have only been found in the abdominal infrared organs of the Australian fire beetle Merimna atrata, where they function as thermoreceptors. In several orthopterans, fibres from the antennae and palps also project into the SVIP. The present work suggests that the multipolar neuron from the infrared organ of Merimna also projects into the protocerebrum, possibly into a ventral region functionally analogous to the SVIP. No MNs but single scolopidia were found in the tips of the antennae and palps of locusts, apparently responsible for projections into the SVIP, where they probably function as receptors for haemolymph pressure.

Diversity and larval leaf-mining habits of Japanese jewel beetles of the tribe Tracheini (Coleoptera, Buprestidae).

From the Japanese Archipelago, 12 Habroloma and 20 Trachys species (Buprestidae: Tracheini) have been recorded. Two new Habroloma species were found, which are associated with Elaeocarpaceae and Loranthaceae, also new host plant families/orders for Tracheini. The two new species are described as Habrolomaelaeocarpusisp. nov. and Habrolomataxillusisp. nov., and the latter is the first Tracheini species shown to be associated with epiphytes. Leaf mines of 31 Tracheini species are also reported in this work, including new records of leaf mines for 16 Tracheini species. The larvae of all these recorded species are full-depth linear-blotch mesophyll miners of mature leaves and pupate within their mines. The mining habits of Habroloma species associated with Symplocos (Symplocaceae) are unique: the young larvae bore into midribs and petioles and cause leaf fall, and the larvae then mine the fallen leaves.