Contribution of the EU Reference Laboratory for Insects and Mites to EFSA's pest categorization of non-EU Scolytinae on non-coniferous hosts

Abstract

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) was mandated by the European Union (EU) to perform a group pest categorization of exotic Scolytinae (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) whose establishment in the EU territory would present a significant risk in terms of plant health. This should be used to reconsider the listing of ‘Non-European Scolytinae’ as quarantine pests in the current EU Regulation. In a first stage, EFSA short-listed 88 Scolytinae species developing on broadleaf hosts and known for their mobility, having impact levels documented in literature and either absent or with a limited presence in the EU. EFSA then asked the European Union Reference Laboratory (EURL) to provide comments related to its expertise in the diagnosis of quarantine insects, and to assess the practical and technical implications of including these species in the list submitted for future regulation? The EURL proceeded with a case-by-case examination of these 88 species and ranked the overall feasibility of their identification, from A (both morphological and molecular tools available) to D (none available). Several related issues were also raised. In particular, the molecular identification of Scolytinae using sequences hosted in NCBI GenBank and Bold databases proved to be highly hazardous. The case of the Euwallacea fornicatus complex was also especially problematic because of multiple issues in its taxonomy and in the available tools for the distinction of its constitutive species. As a result, we proposed a list of recommendations for consideration in modifying EFSA's pest categorization and selected the tools to be developed in the next EURL working programme.