Monochamus sartor

Taxonomy

Domain	Eukarya
Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Arthropoda
Subphylum	Hexapoda
Class	Insecta
Subclass	Pterygota
Infraclass	Neoptera
Order	Coleoptera
Suborder	Polyphaga
Infraorder	Cucujiformia
Superfamily	Chrysomeloidea
Family	Cerambycidae
Subfamily	Lamiinae
Tribe	Monochamini
Genus	Monochamus

Scientific Name

Monochamus galloprovincialis

Common Name

black pine sawyer

Occurrence

Europe, from the eastern France, Switzerland, the northern Italy and Romania through the central Europe to Ukraine. It occurs mainly in mountains.

Host plants

In Poland, mostly the Norway spruce, also Scots pine, common fir and other conifers.

Morphology

Adults are 15-37 mm long, black. Elytrae are with depression in the basal part. Tip of elytrae is without dense hair. Scutellum is densely covered with yellowish pubescence. Eggs are oval, 4.6-5.4 mm long. Larvae are up to 60 mm. Pupae are white, 15-38 mm long with spirally banded antennae on its ventral side.

Biology

Adults fly from the end of June through August. Adults have maturation feeding feed on shoots and branches in spruce crowns, damaging bark and cambium. After mating, females lay eggs singly in small holes made with mandibles in the bark. Newly hatched larvae feed under the bark, penetrate phloem, cambium and outer sapwood. Galleries are first filled with brown shredded bark, then with white chips of wood. After feeding for a month, larvae bore 18 mm wide tunnels into the wood up to 14 cm in depth. At the end of tunnels, larvae construct pupal chambers. Adults emerge through oval exit holes of 7.5-10 mm in diameter. This species has one generation per one, rarely two years./p>

Damage

M. sartor is a technical pest of spruce. It prefers mountain spruce stands weakened by root fungi or damaged by wind or snow.

Control and preventive measures

Similar to Tetropium castaneum and Tetropium fuscum. Trap trees should be with branches. One month after the flight culmination, tree traps should be debarked.

Image Galleries

References

Kolk A., Starzyk J. R., 1996: The Atlas of Forest Insect Pests

(Atlas skodliwych owadów lesnych) - Multico Warszawa, 705 pages. Original publication in Polish. English translation provided by Dr. Lidia Sukovata and others under agreement with The Polish Forest Research Institute.