The New Zealand Pinhole Borer (Platypus apicalis) 4 3 5 2 1 By Olivia Mills.
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Transcript of The New Zealand Pinhole Borer (Platypus apicalis) 4 3 5 2 1 By Olivia Mills.
The New Zealand Pinhole Borer(Platypus apicalis)
4 35 2 1
By Olivia Mills
The New Zealand Pinhole Borer(Platypus apicalis)
• They are pests of beech and some other trees.
• They live in wood, boring deep into living and dead trees.
• Apart from destroying the wood they also allow fungus to grow.
• Although the species are native to New Zealand, they can still cause localised problems to trees when populations reach epidemic levels.
The body of a Pinhole Borer.
The New Zealand Pinhole Borer(Platypus apicalis)
• They infect the wood with spores they carry in specialised cavities. • The ability of the adult borer to contaminate larvae by transfer of fungus
spore was tested and found to occur in the laboratory.
• Adults are slender, brown, shining beetles, 5.5 mm long, with long yellow hairs.
• The borer larvae feeds on fungus growing on the inside holes of the wood, not like their parents.
A Pinhole Borer
The New Zealand Pinhole Borer(Platypus apicalis)
• Pinhole borers are first attracted to chemicals given off by unhealthy trees.
• If the tree is found to be suitable, the first arrivals give off a special chemical triggering a mass attack.
• Usually at this point, the tree’s natural defences fail, giving up to a combination of wood boring and fungi.
• The next borers enter via the tunnels the first beetles have created in the wood.
A Borer has created a tunnel.
A Borer