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Native Phloem and Wood Borers in Australian Mediterranean Forest Trees

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Insects and Diseases of Mediterranean Forest Systems

Abstract

Native Mediterranean forests in Australia are dominated by two tree genera, Eucalyptus and Acacia, while Pinus and Eucalyptus dominate plantation forestry. In native forests, there is a high diversity of phloem and wood borers across several families in the Coleoptera and Lepidoptera. In the Coleoptera, cerambycid beetles (Cerambycidae), jewel beetles (Buprestidae), bark, ambrosia and pinhole beetles (Curculionidae) and pinworms (Lymexelidae) are some of the most commonly found beetles attacking eucalypts and acacias. In the Lepidoptera, wood moths (Cossidae), ghost moths (Hepialidae) and borers in the Xyloryctidae (subfamily Xyloryctinae) are most common. In contrast to native forests, there is a much more limited range of native insects present in Australian plantations, particularly in exotic Pinus spp. plantations, although eucalypt plantations do share some borers in common with native forests. This chapter reviews the importance of these borers in Australian forests primarily from an economic perspective (i.e. those species that cause damage to commercial tree species) and highlights a paucity of native forest species that commonly kill trees relative to the large scales regularly seen in North America and Europe.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Forest Industries Research Centre, Faculty of Arts and Business, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs, QLD, Australia

    Simon A. Lawson & Valerie J. Debuse

  2. Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Valerie J. Debuse

  3. Environmental Futures Centre, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Valerie J. Debuse

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  1. Simon A. Lawson
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  2. Valerie J. Debuse
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Correspondence to Simon A. Lawson .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology, University of California, Riverside, California, USA

    Timothy D. Paine

  2. Faculté des Sciences, Université d’Orléans, Orléans Cedex 2, France

    Francois Lieutier

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Lawson, S.A., Debuse, V.J. (2016). Native Phloem and Wood Borers in Australian Mediterranean Forest Trees. In: Paine, T., Lieutier, F. (eds) Insects and Diseases of Mediterranean Forest Systems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24744-1_16

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