Emerald Ash Borer: Invasion of the Urban Forest and the Threat to North America’s Ash Resource

which now are threatened by A. glabripennis and EAB, respectively. Identification of the EAB infestation in Michigan began when iridescent green beetles collected from dying ash near Detroit were submitted to Michigan State University Department of Entomology in June 2002. On July 9, 2002, the beetles were conclusively identified as A. planipennis by Dr. Eduard Jendek of Slovakia, the world authority on Asian species of Agrilus. Published reports indicated A. planipennis, which has several synonyms including A. marcopoli, A. marcopoli ulmi, and A. feretrius, was native to northeastern China, Korea, Japan, Mongolia, Taiwan, and eastern Russia (Jendek 1994, Haack et al. 2002). Until 2002, however, the EAB had not been collected previously outside of its native range in Asia and little was known about it beyond taxonomic descriptions (Jendek 1994) and a few paragraphs published in Chinese reference books (Chinese Academy of Science 1986, Yu 1992). In Asia, the EAB is not considered a major pest, in part because Asian ash species (Fraxinus mandshurica and F. chinensis) appear more resistant than North American species (Herms et al. 2005). High-density EAB populations in China have been largely associated with plantations of North American ash species used for reforestation (Liu et al. 2003, Bauer et al. 2005, Gould et al. 2005).