ALB And More

Think you know your bugs? Check out these Asian longhorned beetle look-alikes.

Mass Beetle

The Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) was discovered last week in Worcester, Massachusetts, the first sighting of the species in Massachusetts (or in any of New England). Taking calls all day from concerned folks has got me beat, so rather than generating new content here, I'm going to be lame and link to this pest alert, and also decent coverage of the story from NECN.

If you think you have seen an Asian longhorned beetle in Massachusetts, I encourage you to submit a report (and maybe a photo) on the Massachusetts Introduced Pests Outreach Project website.

Update 8/8/08: The ALB has been "rediscovered" in Chicago - just a single specimen - calling the declaration of eradication into question. Scientists are not sure yet if this is a new infestation. Read more from the Chicago Tribune.

No Beetle Is An Island

From USDA Newsroom comes this press release about the discovery of the Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis, ALB) on a small island off the coast of New York. The infested maple and birch trees on tiny Prall's Island were found by USDA officials earlier this month during a routine inspection. The press release notes the beetles have likely been there at least one year. Following the discovery, Prall's Island and Staten Island have been added to the quarantine zone that already covers parts of New York and New Jersey, and all trees on the island with signs of ALB damage will be sent to the chippers.

Prall's Island was turned into a bird sanctuary back in the mid-1980s, and has no public access - so how did the beetles get there? As the nice map on this page from Wikipedia shows, the island is sandwiched right between New York and New Jersey, in Staten Island Sound (also known as the Arthur Kill). Now check out this map (pdf) showing the (now outdated) quarantine regions for New York and New Jersey. Prall's Island is off the map past the little bit of Staten Island that can be seen in the bottom left corner. Something tells me there are going to be more discoveries in that area over the next few months (and they're gonna need a bigger map!).

Update: The beetles have now been discovered on Staten Island. Xris at Flatbush Gardener has the details.

Got The Guts?

According to this press release, the Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) has been targeted for a new genetic study, but not for the reasons that you might think. The project, spearheaded by Penn State University, aims to sequence the gut flora of the beetle to determine why they are so good at destroying trees. While other wood-boring beetle species eat only decaying wood, the Asian longhorned beetle also consumes wood from the healthy, living parts of trees. Scientists are speculating that the beetles may have microbes in their gut that produce enzymes to help break down the components of wood. The U.S. Department of Energy is hoping the study may lead to new developments in the processing of biofuels. I wonder whether they'll be sequencing samples from introduced populations as well as populations from the native range?