Cerambyx dux (Faldermann)
Taxonomic placing: Insecta, Holometabola, Coleoptera, Cerambycidae.
Common name: Duke Beetle.
Geographic distribution: France, Italy, the Balkan, the Near East, Iran.
Host plants: Many rosaceous fruit trees.
Morphology: The female is dark-brown, about 25-45 mm in length, antennae as long as body, or longer. Larvae whitish, except the small brown head and small legs, about 50-60 mm long.
Life Cycle: The pest develops in living or moribund trees. It overwinters as partial-grown larvae, pupae and adults. Adults emerge in the spring; mated females colonize selected host trees and begin depositing eggs (about 30-40 per female) in bark crevices. The emerging larvae penetrate into the outer layers of the trunk and main branches of the host, later attacking the sapwood and heartwood. They require 1-2 years or more to complete their life cycle. The short-lived adults are active mostly during day.
Economic importance: The pest attacks stone fruit trees (apricot, almond, peach and ornamental trees or bushes, wherein it bores and whereon it feeds. The tunneling of the larvae may cause tree death. In Jordan the pest damaged about a quarter of the cultivated stone fruit trees.
Management:
Monitoring: Infested trees can be located by the large quantities of visible sawdust that the larvae expel near their entry holes, and by gum excreted by the trees. The adults, although active during day, are difficult to find due to their dark coloration.
Mechanical control: In small plots the larvae may be removed by pushing a flexible wire into the larva’s entrance hole and dragging it out.
Chemical control: This pest is difficult to control because the larvae are hidden within trees. Pesticides, aimed at the adults, may be applied during their early to mid- summer occurrence.
Biological control: In Malta larvae of Zeuzera pyrina, the leopard moth, are the main predators of C. dux, and have practically eliminated C. dux from that island. The ichneumonid parasitoid Dolichomitus kriechbaumeri (Schulz) attacks the Duke Beetle in Iran.
References
Abbasipour, H., Hasanshahi, G. and Jussila, R. 2012. First record of Dolichomitus kriechbaumeri (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), a Larval parasitoid of long horned beetle, Cerambyx dux in Iran. Journal of BioControl in Plant Protection 1: 103-105.
Saliba, L.J. 1974. The adult behavior of Cerambyx dux Faldermann. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 67: 47-50.
Saliba, L.J. 1977. Observations on the biology of Cerambyx dux Fald in the Maltese Islands. Bulletin of Entomological Research 67: 107-11.
Sharaf, N.S. 2010. Colonization of Cerambyx dux Faldermann (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in stone-fruit tree orchards in Fohais Directorate, Jordan. Jordan Journal of Agricultural Sciences 6: 560-578.