Pest categorisation of non‐EU Monochamus spp.

Abstract The Panel on Plant Health performed a pest categorisation of non‐EU Monochamus spp., a well‐defined insect genus in the family Cerambycidae (Insecta: Coleoptera). Species can be identified using taxonomic keys at national and regional level, and DNA barcoding. Two online world catalogues exist for the genus. The genus includes about one hundred species and many subspecies colonising conifers and non‐conifer trees in many areas in the world. The non‐EU species are listed in Annex IAI of Council Directive 2000/29/EC. Although Monochamus spp. colonise weakened or dead trees and have therefore no direct impact, some species vector the pine wood nematode, Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, which they inoculate to healthy trees when they proceed to maturation feeding on twigs, causing high mortality among pines in Asia and the EU (Portugal). Sixteen species in Asia and America attack conifers. The main pathways for entry are raw untreated wood and wood products, wood packaging material, particle wood and waste wood, finished wood products and hitchhiking. Monochamus species were categorised in two groups. The first group includes 16 species colonising conifers and absent in the EU known or likely to vector the pine wood nematode. The species in this group satisfy all the criteria to be considered as Union quarantine pests. Measures are in place to prevent the introduction of Monochamus with coniferous wood. The second group gathers all the remaining species, all non‐EU species colonising non‐conifers. These do not satisfy all the criteria to be considered as Union quarantine pests. As plants for planting are not a pathway for Monochamus spp., and as most of the species within these groups are absent from the EU territory, the two groups do not meet the criteria to be considered as regulated non‐quarantine pests.