Assessment and Monitoring Damage by <i>Coraebus florentinus</i> (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) in Mediterranean Oak Forests

Abstract

Coraebus florentinus (Herbst) is a wood borer beetle that damages the most abundant Quercus species making up the Mediterranean forests. Damage is due to the feeding activity of the larvae which cut s the sap flow into the branch where it develops, drying it. In the last decades, the geographical range and the damage records of this species have expanded northwardly as a result of the climate global change since warmer conditions favor higher reproduction and quicker development of this species. On this paper, historical series of data after ten years evaluating damages by C. florentinus in Hornachuelos Natural Park (Southern Spain) are analyzed under the perspective of the environmental temperature increase linked to the global climate change. The assessment was done between 2007 and 2017, in two sampling plots of Mediterranean mixed-oak forests where holm and cork oaks are the predominant tree species. Results show that the infestation levels of this species at the beginning of the assessment period were higher than those described previously in the nineties and that they increase d progressively during the monitoring time. The results also agree with the expansion of its distribution areas noticed in other areas of Europe. The foreseeable rising of damages of C. florentinus is discussed, at greater scale, under the perspective of future scenery of environmental warming and oaks decaying by losing fitness due to higher soil aridity.