title: Planting sentinel European trees in eastern Asia as a novel method to identify potential insect pest invaders.
abstract: Quarantine measures to prevent insect invasions tend to focus on well-known pests but a large proportion of the recent invaders were not known to cause significant damage in their native range, or were not even known to science before their introduction. A novel method is proposed to detect new potential pests of woody plants in their region of origin before they are introduced to a new continent. Since Asia is currently considered to be the main supplier of insect invaders to Europe, sentinel trees were planted in China during 2007-2011 as an early warning tool to identify the potential for additional Asian insect species to colonize European trees. Seedlings (1-1.5 m tall) of five broadleaved (Quercus petraea, Q. suber, Q. ilex, Fagus sylvatica, and Carpinus betulus) and two conifer species (Abies alba and Cupressus sempervirens) were planted in blocks of 100 seedlings at two widely separated sites (one in a nursery near Beijing and the other in a forest environment near Fuyang in eastern China), and then regularly surveyed for colonization by insects. A total of 104 insect species, mostly defoliators, were observed on these new hosts, and at least six species were capable of larval development. Although a number of the insects observed were probably incidental feeders, 38 species had more than five colonization events, mostly infesting Q. petraea, and could be considered as being capable of switching to European trees if introduced to Europe. Three years was shown to be an appropriate duration for the experiment, since the rate of colonization then tended to plateau. A majority of the identified species appeared to have switched from agricultural crops and fruit trees rather than from forest trees. Although these results are promising, the method is not appropriate for xylophagous pests and other groups developing on larger trees. Apart from the logistical problems, the identification to species level of the specimens collected was a major difficulty. This situation could be improved by the development of molecular databases.
authors.affiliation: INRA UR 633 Zoologie Forestière, Orléans, France.
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Roques
authors.affiliation: School of Forestry and Bio-technology, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, Lin'an, China.
authors.forename: Jian-Ting
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: INRA UR 633 Zoologie Forestière, Orléans, France.
authors.forename: Béatrice
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Courtial
authors.affiliation: State key laboratory of Integrated Management of pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yan-Zhuo
authors.initials: YZ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: INRA UR 633 Zoologie Forestière, Orléans, France.
authors.forename: Annie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yart
authors.affiliation: INRA UR 633 Zoologie Forestière, Orléans, France.
authors.forename: Marie-Anne
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Auger-Rozenberg
authors.affiliation: INRA UR 633 Zoologie Forestière, Orléans, France.
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Denux
authors.affiliation: CABI, Delémont, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kenis
authors.affiliation: Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, Sand Hutton, York, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Baker
authors.affiliation: State key laboratory of Integrated Management of pest Insects and Rodents, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jiang-Hua
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017753:Ecosystem; D005060:Europe; D005202:Asia, Eastern; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions; D007313:Insecta / Q000502:physiology*; D010571:Pest Control; D013045:Species Specificity; D014197:Trees / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000469:parasitology*