Tomicus destruens (Wollaston, 1865)

Beaver, Roger A., Ghahari, Hassan & Sanguansub, Sunisa, 2016, An annotated checklist of Platypodinae and Scolytinae (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) from Iran, Zootaxa 4098 (3), pp. 401-441 : 411

Tomicus destruens (Wollaston, 1865)

Distribution in Iran. Golestan ( Samin et al. 2011).

General distribution. Southern Europe, North Africa, Madeira, Cyprus, Israel, Turkey.

Taxonomy and distribution. This species is very similar to, and has often been confused with Tomicus piniperda (L.), with which it is occasionally sympatric ( Vasconcelos et al. 2006), but morphological distinguishing characters are given by Faccoli (2006), and mitochondrial DNA indicates that it is a distinct species (e.g. Gallego & Gallian 2008). The distribution of both species is related to temperature with T. destruens occurring in locations with warmer temperatures ( Horn et al. 2012). Analysis of mitochondrial DNA indicates that the species has recolonized the Mediterranean area from two glacial refugia, one in the West ( Portugal), the other at the Eastern end of the range ( Vasconcelos et al. 2006; Gallego & Galian 2008).

Biology. The species breeds in Pinus (Pinaceae) , and is a pest of pines in the Mediterranean region. The biology and gallery system are generally similar to T. piniperda (e.g. Chararas 1962; Sauvard 2004; Sabbatini Peverieri et al. 2008), and the life cycle includes a shoot-feeding phase on fresh pine twigs before breeding. Tiberi et al. (2009) studied the shoot-feeding preferences of adults on five species of pine, and Branco et al. (2010) have shown that in this phase the beetles prefer to attack non-stressed trees, potentially weakening them and rendering them liable to breeding attacks. Faccoli (2007, 2009) has investigated the reproductive performance on various Pinus species in the Mediterranean region, and the effects of intraspecific competition on performance. The attractive and repellent effects on adults of various volatiles from pine bark were studied by Faccoli et al. (2011).