Anthaxia angustipennis Klug
Common name: Golden buprestid beetle.
Systematic position: Insecta, Holometabola, Coleoptera, Buprestidae.
Distribution: Egypt to North Africa, Iran and Afghanistan.
Morphology: The adults are about 5-7 mm in length, dorsum, including thorax and elytra, reddish-golden and punctated.
Host plants: Fruit trees like apple, apricot, citrus, fig (Ficus carica L.), mango, peach, pear, as well as Acacia spp., Casuarina, and willow (Salix spp.).
Life history: Adults emerge in May-August and oviposit in Acacia, producing about 20 eggs/female. A life cycle requires about 1-2 years, and a female lives about 3 weeks.
Economic importance: A pest of mango in Egypt.
Management
Monitoring: The beetles can be caught by beating Acacia branches, or with sticky traps on cut branches.
Plant resistance: Some mango cultivars show a degree of tolerance (or reduced susceptibility) to the pest.
Biological control: The pest is parasitized in Algeria by the chalcidid Tanycoryphus saharensis Hedqvist.
References
Batt, A. E. G. M., 2001: Life cycle of golden buprestid beetle, Anathaxia angustipennis Klug, and relative susceptibility of certain mango tree varieties to infestation with some insect borers. Egyptian Journal of Agricultural Research 79: 521-530.
Hedqvist, K.J. 1967. Notes on some chalcid flies reared from Buprestidae and Bostrychidae, injurious to Acacia roddiana Savi in Algeria (Sahara) and North Tchad. Eos. Revista Espanola di Entomologia 43: 135-146.
Websites