Hypoborus ficus (Erichson)
Taxonomic placing: Insecta, Holometabola, Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Scolytinae.
Common name: Fig bark beetle.
Geographical distribution: The Mediterranean region and the Canary Islands.
Host plants: The main host is the fig, Ficus carica Linnaeus, but mulberry and grapevines canes may also be attacked.
Morphology: The female is 1.0-1.5 mm long, dark brown, with a dorsal dark-yellow pubescence.
Life cycle: The pest develops throughout the year, raising about 4 generations. Adults are active on warm days, burrowing a gallery in thin branches and laying their eggs there. The larvae also tunnel and form a main chamber in which they pupate and the emerging beetles mate.
Economic importance: A pest of figs in western Turkey. It attacks weak trees and hastens their decline; healthy trees and parts thereof appear to be immune. Hypoborus ficus is part of a guild of wood-boring beetles that cause considerable damage to figs in Turkey.
Management
Cultural control: Weak fig branches, being the preferred habitat of the pest, should be removed.
Biological control: In Europe the pest is attacked by the parasitoid Trichopria hypobori Kieffer (Proctotrupidae). In Turkey this scolitid is heavily parasitized by the pyemotid Pyemotes johnmoseri (Khaustov).
References
Aksit, T., Cakmak, I. and Moser, J. 2007. Attack by Pyemotes johnmoseri (Acari: Pyemotidae) on Hypoborus ficus (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) in fig trees in Turkey. Experimental and Applied Acarology 41: 251-254.
Avidov, Z. and Harpaz, I. 1969. Plant Pests of Israel. Israel Universities Press, Jerusalem.
Lichtenstein, L. and Picard, J.L. 1920. Note sur les Proctotrypides (Hym.). Bulletin de la Société entomologique de France 11: 54-55