Location: Systematic Entomology Laboratory
Project Number: 8042-30400-004-013-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Jul 1, 2026
End Date: Dec 31, 2027
Objective:
The goals of this project are to: (1) Infer the first comprehensive evolutionary tree for the study of the biology and taxonomy of Agrilus and other forest insect pests, using cutting-edge genome-sequencing techniques; (2) Generate genomic data to facilitate DNA-based identification of Agrilus and other forest insect pest species; and (3) Synthesize novel molecular data with morphological, occurrence, and plant host data to develop tools to aid in rapid identification of Agrilus and other forest insect pest species, and predict the next serious pest that shares similar traits that may predispose some species such as EAB to become pestiferous.
Approach:
ARS will sequence molecular loci for specimens representing Agrilus and other forest insect pests. Phylogenies will also clarify species and species-group boundaries in Agrilus and other forest insect pests, greatly improving our taxonomic understanding of this genus. Using the phylogenetically informed species boundaries, ARS will construct a user-friendly, publicly accessible tool for the immediate identification of any U.S. Agrilus species and other forest insect pests. In addition to identification keys, ARS will produce an online portal with detailed profile pages for all U.S. species, synthesizing newly acquired data, including diagnostic morphological characters, images, associated molecular data, known hosts, and locality information. To allow morphological study from detailed images, species will be photographed using a Macropod imaging system. The previously-described cutting edge molecular techniques will also yield data for DNA-based identification.