Invasive wood borers vectoring pathogenic fungi have nearly exterminated several North American tree species, and it is unclear whether landscape dominant trees, such as pines, will face similar threats in the future. This paper explores the economic impacts of a hypothetical arrival of a...

Pitch canker, caused by the pathogen Fusarium circinatum, is a serious disease of pines, Pinus species. It is a threat to natural and planted pine forests, and to date it has invaded countries across five continents. Pine-feeding insects can play a key role in the epidemiology of the disease, as...

The pinewood nematode (PWN), Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, is the causal agent of pine wilt disease. This species has been reported from the United States of America and Asia associated with important forestry tree species, including pine, spruce, fir, larch and other conifers. However, in Europe,...

The pine sawyer beetle Monochamus galloprovincialis is one of the main vectors of the pathogenic pine wood nematode Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, the causal agent of pine wilt disease. Although the nematode is absent from northern Africa, the vector M. galloprovincialis has been previously reported...

A new species of Callimomoides Girault 1926 (Hymenoptera: Pteromalidae), Callimomoides monochaphagae Yang, sp. n., is described from China. It is a solitary endoparasitoid of eggs of the pine sawyer, Monochamus alternatus Hope (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), a serious pest that causes damage to pine...

In 2010, a pine tree with suspected wilt disease was found in Lushang Forest of P. thunbergii located in Zibo city of Shandong Province, China. Symptoms were systemic, with almost all leaves brown or yellowish; the tree was nearly dead. Based on morphometrics and sequence analysis of the internal...

In September 2009, specimens of Ips sexdentatus were captured using black cross vane traps in an old stand of Pinus halepensis Miller at Dekani in the submediterranean ecological region of Slovenia. Twenty-four per cent of them carried phoretic mites, and six taxa of mites were collected directly...

Leptoglossus occidentalis, an insect native to North America, was inadvertently introduced into Italy about 1999. The insect damages the cones of conifer trees, especially Pinus pinea (Italian Stone pine). Pinus pinea is also affected by Diplodia pinea, a fungus native to Italy, which is becoming...

Non-native organisms can affect native communities and ecosystems in different ways. We examine here the case of the western conifer seed bug Leptoglossus occidentalis Heidemann (Heteroptera Coreidae), a polyphagous pest of conifer seeds, introduced from northern America into Italy in 1999 and then ...

Scolytid beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) are a large group of beetles associated with many tree species. Some species consume dead wood and vector an array of fungi which contribute to recycling of organic material, so are often an important component of forest ecology. However,...