The red turpentine bark beetle, Dendroctontus valens LeConte, is a native of North America and is distributed from Central America, Mexico, western US, Canada and northeastern US. Mostly dead or dying Pinus, Picea and Abies are hosts but unhealthy live trees are sometimes killed. Recently epidemic populations of this species have been discovered in Shaxi, Shaaxi, Hebei and Henan Provinces, China. So far over half million hectares of drought stressed, Pinus tabuliformis have been infested. Biology and ecology of the red turpentine bark beetle varies within its native range thus biological control (e.g. parasitoids and pheromones) must tailored to each population. Unknown origin(s) of the Chinese beetles hampers the implementation of biological control. This study uses a portion of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene as a molecular marker to identify potential origin(s), size and occurrence of introduction(s) to China.
Thirty-four DNA haplotypes were observed among 65 D. valens individuals from eight western US populations and four haplotypes were found in China. Ten parsimony informative characters were observed among the haplotypes. Parsimony analysis resulted in 8800 trees and the strict consensus of these trees was mostly unresolved. These data and analysis do not pinpoint the exact origin of the infestation. However the results suggest that the likely origin is the Pacific Northwest of North America. Also the occurrence of multiple haplotypes in China suggests that the population did not derive from one ancestor. Either multiple families arrived with one introduction of infested wood or several introductions of infested wood occurred.
Species 1: Coleoptera Curculionidae Dendroctonus valens
Keywords: mitochondrial DNA, exotic species
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