Origin
Native to Japan, introduced to New York in 1932, migrated south and west. First occurred in Oregon and Washington in 2004.

Life Cycle
Females will bore into the new host to create a brood gallery. Eggs are laid in the gallery and both the adults and larvae feed on the Ambrosia fungus carried into the host tree and cultivated by the mother. Larvae are creamy white about 2 mm. Galleries are often irregular and host on average about 16 larvae/gallery. Species has a very strong sexual selection with 1:9 male:females being reared. Males are rare, flightless and often mate in the brood gallery with siblings. Females are 2-2.3 cm, black beetles, antennae are geniculate with an obliquely truncate club, the pronotum is rounded, elytra are about half longer than the pronotum and have a broadly convex declivity. Peak flight period is early spring right around the end of tree dormancy, but may extend into the summer.

Hosts include any woody tree or shrub, from spruce, fir and birch to cultivated cherry and apple. It has also been found feeding on ornamental sumac and grapes.

Distribution
Found throughout Europe and Asia as well as most of North America. It has not been found in Alaska.

Control Efforts
Cultural control of removing infected trees has the greatest impact on containing spread. Insecticide use is limited because of the life history of the beetle and its limited exposure period. Pheromone traps are available for monitoring.

Resources
https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/57237

Image Resource
https://www.insectimages.org/search/action.cfm?q=xylosandrus+germanus
https://www.barkbeetles.info/regional_chklist_target_species.php?lookUp=2185

Taxonomy
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Arthropoda
Class
Insecta
Order
Coleoptera
Family
Curculionidae
Genus
Xylosandrus
Species
germanus (Blandford, 1894)
 

Resources


Selected Images



Taxonomic Rank


Domain: Eukarya
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Class: Insecta
Subclass: Pterygota
Infraclass: Neoptera
Order: Coleoptera Linnaeus, 1758
Suborder: Polyphaga
Infraorder: Cucujiformia Lameere, 1938
Superfamily: Curculionoidea
Family: Curculionidae Latreille, 1802
Subfamily: Scolytinae Latreille, 1804
Tribe: Xyleborini LeConte, 1876
Genus: Xylosandrus Reitter 1913
Xylosandrus germanus (Blandford, 1894)