Agricultural and Forest Entomology (2005) 7, 87-94

Anthony I. Cognato, Jiang-Hua Sun, Miguel A. Anducho-Reyes and Donald R. Owen (2005)
Genetic variation and origin of red turpentine beetle (Dendroctonus valens LeConte) introduced to the People's Republic of China
Agricultural and Forest Entomology 7 (1), 87-94
Abstract: 1 - The red turpentine beetle, Dendroctonus valens LeConte, is a recent New World introduction to the People's Republic of China. An outbreak of these beetles has infested over 0.5 million hectares of pine forests.
2 - Efforts are underway to suppress this outbreak using biological control measures. However, the wide distribution in the native range of D. valens suggests regional variation of the beetle's biology, predators, and parasitoids. Thus, knowledge of the origin of these beetles can help devise precise and effective control measures.
3 - A portion of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I gene was sequenced for 218 individuals from 32 populations throughout the native range of D. valens and in China.
4 - Haplotype diversity was high. A total of 131 haplotypes were found and Jukes-Cantor corrected nucleotide difference ranged from 0 to 16%. Haplotype diversity ranged from 0.53 to 0.98 and unique haplotypes were found in most populations.
5 - Parsimony and statistical parsimony analyses of these haplotypes support the hypothesis that the introduction of D. valens to China was recent and originated from the Pacific North-west of the U.S.A.
6 - In addition, the high haplotype diversity also suggests a large or multiple introductions. However, based on the genetics of the beetle's reproductive behaviour, this diversity may also be explained by a limited number of individuals or introductions.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Donald R. Owen, Jiang-Hua Sun

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
general biology - morphology - evolution
molecular biology - genes

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Dendroctonus valens	Pine (Pinus)