Euwallacea fornicatus (Eichhoff)

Beaver, Roger A. & Smith, Sarah M., 2022, The bark and ambrosia beetles of Bhutan (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae and Platypodinae): a synopsis with three new species of Scolytinae, Zootaxa 5174 (1), pp. 1-24 : 13-14

Euwallacea fornicatus (Eichhoff) complex *

Xyleborus fornicatus Eichhoff, 1868: 151 .

Euwallacea fornicatus (Eichhoff) : Wood 1989: 173.

Euwallacea fornicatus is one species in a complex of at least four sibling species ( Smith et al. 2019). The species are most reliably separated through COI barcoding sequences ( Gomez et al. 2018, Smith et al. 2019). Such sequences are not available for the two specimens recorded here, but we justify recording the presence of the complex in Bhutan because the members of the complex are economically important as pests of tea, fruit and other trees, both in parts of their native distribution, and where they have been introduced in the United States, Israel, South Africa and elsewhere (e.g., Mendel et al. 2017; Stouthamer et al. 2017; VanRooyen et al. 2021).

New record. Bhutan, W, Distr. Samchi, Puntsheling , 300m, 16‒17.vi.1988, C. Holzschuh (2) ( NKME) .

Distribution. Members of the complex are native to the region from Sri Lanka, India, South China and Taiwan, through Southeast Asia and Indonesia to New Guinea, and the Pacific Is.

Biology. The species in the complex are all polyphagous. Due to the economic importance of the complex, there is a large literature. Various aspects of the biology of the species are described by e.g., Cooperband et al. (2016, 2017), Mendel et al. 2017, Stouthamer et al. (2017), Byers et al. (2018), Carrillo et al. (2020).