Host Plants of World Agrilus (Coleoptera, Buprestidae)
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Host Plants of World Agrilus (Coleoptera, Buprestidae) Eduard Jendek • Janka Pola´kova´ Host Plants of World Agrilus (Coleoptera, Buprestidae) A Critical Review Eduard Jendek Janka Pola´kova´ Ottawa Plant Laboratory Ottawa, ON, Canada Ottawa, ON, Canada ISBN 978-3-319-08409-1 ISBN 978-3-319-08410-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-08410-7 Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London Library of Congress Control Number: 2014944439 © Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada 2014 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center. Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Dedicated to Ilja Okali 1 Friend Colleague Mentor Entomologist Museologist 1 15 September 1934–11 October 2002. You are missed by all of us. Foreword Dear reader, How well you are aware of an Agrilus jewel-beetle Agrilus issue is most likely firmly linked to your place of residence. Quite unfortunately, North Americans have a better chance to know most about it. Before 2002, the name Agrilus was certainly not in the everyday consciousness, leaving aside a small circle of profes- sional entomologists who even then knew how to spell A-g-r-i-l-u-s. Being con- ventionally accepted as the most diversified genus of the Animal Kingdom with presently some 3,000 species found all over the world, Agrilus quietly coexisted with humans ever since our own species came into existence. Things changed when our relatively recent ancestors spread all over the non-glaciated solid earth surface, became industrialized, learned to trade, mastered maritime travel and, most recently, have developed a strong craving for, or rather dependency on, cheap and abundant products from half way across the Globe bringing with them some undesired live “by-products”. Rapid development of maritime travel connected continents since around the time of Columbus. Besides humans, other species also took advantage of making a passage to the new lands of promise and opportunities. Some of them were brought intentionally to “improve” nature while the majority hitchhiked. Pretty soon mice, goats and dandelions were greeting a European sailor in the most exotic places, from Botany Bay to Easter Island. Native biotas of smaller and likely more vulnerable oceanic islands quickly succumbed to the invaders. In 1836, when visiting St. Helena, Charles Darwin commented that among its 746 plant species, only 52 were indigenous while the others had been imported (Darwin, Reference to the Voyage). Continental biota, seemingly more robust or at least more diversified, could better resist the invaders, although the tendency was identical. The new- comers have been continuously arriving at ever increasing numbers and frequency and (surprise, surprise) threatening the long established local biotic communities. And now back to the Agrilus jewel beetle. Just over a decade ago the infamous Agrilus planipennis (¼Emerald Ash Borer or “EAB”, although I much prefer using vii viii Foreword proper Latin names and specifically detest abbreviations) somehow squeezed some of its individuals to North America. It is not quite known how many specimens originally came, whether they were travelling as eggs, larvae, pupae or adults, which route they took and when exactly they boarded and disembarked the vessel (or possibly a plane). What is known is that in spring and summer 2002 large, spectacular and obviously “foreign” Agrilus beetle came to the notice of the US and Canadian forest officials in the region adjacent to Windsor and Detroit on both sides of the Canada–USA border (HAACK et al. 2002). The species did extremely well in North America partly due to ashes (Fraxinus), so abundant in natural and urban forests, in which it developed. What followed is already a well-known history of two countries taken entirely by surprise and, alas, gradually surrendering to a super- beetle that succeeded in what has been called “the most costly biological invasion by an exotic forest insect to date”(HERMS &MCCULLOUGH 2014). Among millions of others, two mature ash trees shading my house and making the July heat more bearable were gone (not with the wind but by being removed by a city of Ottawa tree-cutting crew) in 2013. To my biological mind, the most fascinating aspect of the story is the emergence of Agrilus planipennis as a complete surprise to the entire North American scientific community. The beast was totally unknown on the continent and, as was suggested, “...prior to its arrival, not a single specimen of A. planipennis existed in North American collections...”(JENDEK &GREBENNIKOV 2011). It directs attention of many, not only dedicated zoologists in non-vertebrates (meaning insects, mites, spiders, nematodes, tardigrades, daddy longlegs, earth worms and other similarly small, “creepy” and understudied), to fully appreciate the truly overwhelming amount of known unknowns or, rather unknown unknowns, pertaining to the diversity of life on our planet. The present book systematizes orders and makes available all present knowl- edges on the host plants of Agrilus jewel beetles. It does not, and was not meant to, include any new data, while it does strive to sum up all what has ever been published on the subject. Although I met Eduard almost daily, it took me 6 years to grasp and appreciate the size of the task he and his co-author had undertaken. Taxonomy of Agrilus was (and perhaps still is) in a grand mess. This means that the same beetle species might be identified by different authors under different names with the predictable result that nobody understands what a name means. All this taxonomic chaos has to be sorted out in the first place, before a species name starts efficiently storing and disseminating information pertaining to it. Eduard started his Agrilus career more than two decades ago by inspecting Agrilus type specimens in the European Museums, documenting them, designating numerous lectotypes and generally cleaning the Augean stables of Agrilus names for, firstly, Palaearctic, and then for the Oriental regions. At the same time he developed an access-based database to capture and manage all the information on everything which had been so far published on the genus. Besides the Agrilus species descriptions, the database contains geographical records, data on immature stages and notes on plants these organisms eat. It should be remembered that Foreword ix Agrilus eats nothing but plants and this habit matters to us humans, specifically after A. planipennis has shown what it is capable to eat and how much (including two ashes in front of my house). Eduard and Janka faced significant difficulties with how to treat information from thousands of records published since the Linnaean time and reporting that “Agrilus species A lives on plant species B”. Such records were generated by a multitude of authors with highly variable scientific and biological background in many different languages. Therefore, for a reasonable summation a number of preliminary questions had to be answered. Is the record reliable enough to be included in the analysis or possibly any of the two involved biological entities, a beetle and a plant, are misidentified? Are both involved biological names still the same presently? Which plant was exactly meant when reported as “обычен на жимолости” or “[a Japanese plant symbol]”. Last but not least, how to find *every* Agrilus host plant reference ever in existence? This work could have been done only by a team having (in addition to perseverance and dedication) the best possible knowledge on the current Agrilus taxonomy worldwide, solid botanical knowledge, adequate linguistic abilities, first-hand experience in Agrilus biology (including rearing and fieldwork) along with advanced databasing skills. On the whole, this book firmly delimits a significant amount of “known” in terms of plant relations to Agrilus species worldwide and, therefore, equally firmly designates what remains unknown. It is one step down the road to better under- standing the biological requirements of our planetary neighbours, considering the fact that some of them tend to climb over the fence into our backyards and stay there feeding on our plants. At the very least when another adventive Agrilus arrives, and this is, I am bound to say, just a matter of time, this book will tell us which of our beloved plants it will consume first.