Occurrence of Gnathotrichus Materiarius (Fitch, 1858) (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Scolytinae) in South-Western Poland

Abstract

Gnathotrichus materiarius is listed as an alien ambrosia beetle in European fauna. This is an invasive species from North America, which was found in Europe (France) in the 1930s. In Poland, it was recorded in 2015. Already in 2017 numerous infestations of G. materiarius on lying Pinus sylvestris wood were obsereved. G. materairius is a xylomycophagous species and wood damage to its feeding is similar to that caused by striped ambrosia beetle Trypodendron lineatum. The paper presents sites of G. materairius occurrence found in 2016 and 2017. These include 15 sites located in managed forests (5 forest districts) as well as in 2 national parks situated along south-western border of Poland. G. materairius beetles were found in pheromone-baited traps used to monitor Ips duplicatus and I. amitinus or collected from infested Scots pine wood. The paper presents the description and characteristics of wood damage due to G. materiarius as well as its distinguishing features.

Abiotic and Biotic Disturbances Affecting Forest Health in Poland over the Past 30 Years: Impacts of Climate and Forest Management

“…Significant damage may be caused by species considered thus far as pests of secondary importance, such as I. acuminatus [87,89] and I. cembrae [74]. An increase in the frequency of severe drought is expected [101], which, when combined with the emergence of insect species that have been found in Poland (e.g., Anoplophora glabripennis (Motschulsky, 1853) [102], Xylosandrus germanus (Blandford, 1894) [103], Gnathotrichus materiarius (Fitch, 1858) [104], can lead to widespread tree mortality.…”

Potential European Geographical Distribution of Gnathotrichus materiarius (Fitch, 1858) (Coleoptera: Scolytinae) under Current and Future Climate Conditions

“…However, fungi carried in their mycangia might be pathogenic to particular host species, leading to economic losses [19][20][21][22][23]. Gnathotrichus materiarius (Fitch, 1858) (Figure 1) is one of the alien ambrosia beetles spreading across Europe [11,24,25]. In Europe, it was recorded for the first time in France in the 1930s [26].…”

“…Gnathotrichus materiarius (Coleoptera, Scolytinae) is an ambrosia beetle from the Corthylini tribe [27]. It is a monogamous species, with a sex ratio of 1:1, with no sibling mating nor asexual reproduction, which distinguishes G. materiarius from the Xyleborini tribe species [25,[40][41][42]. Larvae and imagines of G. materiarius feed on a symbiotic fungus Ambrosiozyma monospora (Saito) van der Walt (1972) (syn.…”

“…Gnathotrichus materiarius is a technical pest of coniferous wood in the USA and Europe [38,48,49]. It prefers Pinus, while also infesting numerous genera of conifers: Abies, Larix, Picea, Pinus, Pseudotsuga, Thuja, or Tsuga [25,33,50]. Due to excavation galleries in the lower part of the trunk, it is of economic importance as a pest, decreasing the technical quality and economic value of affected timber [25,51,52].…”

“…It prefers Pinus, while also infesting numerous genera of conifers: Abies, Larix, Picea, Pinus, Pseudotsuga, Thuja, or Tsuga [25,33,50]. Due to excavation galleries in the lower part of the trunk, it is of economic importance as a pest, decreasing the technical quality and economic value of affected timber [25,51,52]. Moreover, fungi growing in the tunnels can cause wood staining [25,31], although this phenomenon is not very common.…”