Work

First record of Semanotus bifasciatus (Motschulsky, 1875) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), an East Asian pest introduced into Uzbekistan, confirmed by DNA barcoding and morphology

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: The longhorned beetles (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) are among the largest families of phytophagous beetles, and many species are economically important xylophages of forestry and ornamental plantings (Šlipiński & Escalona 2013; Švácha & Lawrence 2014).Within the subfamily Cerambycinae, tribe Callidiini Kirby, 1837, the Holarctic genus Semanotus Mulsant, 1839 comprises about 18 species whose larvae develop chiefly in Cupressaceae and Pinaceae, several of them notorious stem borers of cypresses, junipers and arborvitae (Hammond & Williams 2013; Danilevsky et al. 2020; Tavakilian & Chevillotte 2024).Semanotus bifasciatus (Motschulsky, 1875) is native to East Asia -China, Japan, the Korean Peninsula, the Russian Far East and Mongolia (Grebennikov et al. 2017; Yan et al. 2019; Gubin et al. 2025) -and is one of the most damaging wood-boring pests of Cupressaceae, attacking Platycladus orientalis, Juniperus spp.and Cupressus spp.; larval galleries in the cambium and xylem cause cortical necrosis, foliar yellowing, dieback and, in heavy infestations, tree death, and outbreaks in northern China have historically destroyed large proportions of planted and heritage conifers (Yan et al. 2019).The Cerambycidae of Central Asia have been treated by several authors (Kostin 1973; Löbl & Smetana 2010; Kadyrov et al. 2016; Karpiński et al. 2018), yet the faunas of individual regions of Uzbekistan remain incompletely known.For the Fergana Valley, the most recent ecological-faunistic analysis recorded 81 longhorned species in 30 genera and six subfamilies but did not include S. bifasciatus (Marupov et al. 2021).The valley has undergone extensive planting of non-native ornamental conifers in urban parks, avenues and gardens (Zhang et al. 2020), creating new niches and dispersal pathways for adventive insects; recent integrative surveys have accordingly uncovered alien

Source: Ecologica Montenegrina

DOI: 10.37828/em.2026.101.5