An exotic longhorn beetle known to damage trees has been discovered for the first time in Japan. Roadside trees in Fukushima Prefecture fell victim to it.
Anzai Yukari, an arborist in Koriyama City, says that she found the pest in a damaged tree trunk in July and sent it to the national Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute.
The institute identified it as an Apriona swainsoni swainsoni, a type of longhorn beetle native to China and other places that had never been found in Japan before.
Anzai says the pests live in trees such as Maackia amurensis, which are planted on roadsides and in gardens across Japan.
She says 52 out of 54 trees along a road in Koriyama City were damaged by the insect. One of them has already toppled and three others were cut down as they were feared to fall.
Kagaya Etsuko, an expert on longhorn beetles at the institute, says the insect is known in China as the killer of roadside trees. She warns that the spread of the insect needs to be immediately studied to eradicate it before it spreads further.
