Diversity of phyllophagous insects and micromycetes on alien woody plants in Siberia
Introduction. This study was focused on phyllophagous insects and foliar fungi attacking European and Eurasian woody plants in arboreta and city plantations in Siberia. This surveys can play an important role in detection potentially harmful insect pests and diseases on native and alien woody plants. Material and methods. Surveys were carried out in arboreta and city plantations in Krasnoyarsk, Tomsk and Novosibirsk in 1997–2011 on European and Eurasian woody plant species from 15 families and 25 genera: Aceraceae ( Acer), Adoxaceae ( Viburnum), Berberidaceae ( Berberis), Betulaceae ( Betula, Alnus), Caprifoliaceae ( Lonicera), Cornaceae ( Cornus), Fabaceae ( Caragana, Chamaecytisus), Fagaceae ( Quercus), Grossulariaceae ( Ribes), Malvaceae ( Tilia), Oleaceae ( Syringa), Rhamnaceae ( Rhamnus), Rosaceae ( Crataegus, Malus, P otentilla, Prunus, Rosa, Rubus, Spiraea, Sorbus), Salicaceae ( Salix, Populus) and Ulmaceae ( Ulmus). Plants were regularly inspected for phyllophagous insect pests and diseases caused by foliar fungi. Samples were collected and identified. Comparison of European and Eurasian plants by taxonomic diversity of insects and fungi was done using Mann-Whitney test (Statistica 8.0 for Windows). Results and discussion. In the study, 163 phyllophagous insect species were detected on European and Eurasian woody plants. They represented six orders: Lepidoptera (73 species), Sternorrhyncha (Hemiptera) (30 species), Coleoptera (30 species), Hymenoptera (22 species) and Diptera (8 species). About 11 % of insect species caused significant damage to the plants. The richest taxonomic diversity of phyllophagous arthropods was recorded on the plants from the families Salicaceae и Rosaceae. About 64 % of all found insect species were external defoliators. The rest insects were mainly leaf miners. Three mining moths, i.e. Gracillaria syringella, Phyllonorycter issikii, Ph. lantanella (Gracillariidae, Lepidoptera) have been recorded for the first time in the area of study. They are known pests in their native range. The inspected woody plants hosted 65 fungi species. The majority of the foliar pathogens are also known in Europe, where they infect either the same plants as in Siberia or other plants. Micromycetes causing spottiness dominated on alien plants and were represented by 44 species. Five micromycetes found on European and Eurasian plants in Siberia are not yet known in Europe: Cylindrosporium betulae (on Betula pendula), C. canadense (on Spiraea hypericifolia), Septoria guevillensis (on Spiraea chamaedryfolia), C. salicinum (on Salix alba) and Mycopappus alni (on Alnus glutinosa и A. incana). The two latter fungi species noticeably affected their host plants in some years. In Siberia, Eurasian woody plants were attacked by more insect species and foliar pathogens than purely European plants.