Invasion of the four-eyed fir bark beetle (Polygraphus proximus Blandford) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae, Scolytinae) in the Urals

The first discoveries of the invader in the Urals, the Cis-Urals, and the Volga region were made in the late 2010s. In the Udmurt Republic, P. proximus was first detected in 2019, in Perm Krai and Chelyabinsk Oblast in 2022, and in Sverdlovsk Oblast in 2023. According to the latest data, during a route survey in July 2024, P. proximus was discovered in forest stands along the Yekaterinburg-Serov and Yekaterinburg-Perm highways. In the Chelyabinsk Oblast, the invader was detected in all forestry sites with Siberian fir stands, as well as in a number of urban forests and parks, and regional and federal protected areas. These regions were almost certainly invided much earlier. As part of this study, we dated the invasion of P. proximus the Urals and Cis-Urals. In earliest total, data were obtained for 253 trees killed by the bark beetle, and 90 living trees, which were necessary for constructing a master chronology. Dating the mortality of the first trees colonized by the invader provided an idea of the time when P. proximus entered the surveyed area. The invasion of P. proximus most likely began in Udmurtia in the 2000s. The earliest tree mortality was recorded in the Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk Oblast in 2007. In Perm Krai, tree mortality was earliest recorded in two sites of the Dobryanskoye forestry (2011 and 2014). The invader arrived in Perm significantly later: fir dieback in urban forests began in 2018, 2021, and 2022. Since at least 2-3 years usually passe between the Polygraphus proximus arrival in a new area and the death of the first fir tree, this period should be taken into account when determining the date of invasion.

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