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Invasive species pose a significant threat to forested ecosystems. Within the past 10 years, three nonnative birch leaf mining sawflies have been found in Alaska: Fenusa pumila, Heterarthrus nemoratus, and Profenusa thomsoni. Damage, caused primarily by P. thomsoni, is particularly notable in urban areas where the impact of browning tree crowns in mid-to-late summer raises public concern. The initial outbreak in Anchorage in 1996 increased to more than 32,000 ac by 2003. That same year, a survey was initiated to determine the extent of leaf mining sawflies throughout most of the state. Adult emergence, flight period, and larval phenology were assessed also. Surveys done through 2006 show that P. thomsoni is present...
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Invasive species pose a significant threat to forested ecosystems. Within the past 10 years, three nonnative birch leaf mining sawflies have been found in Alaska: Fenusa pumila, Heterarthrus nemoratus, and Profenusa thomsoni. Damage, caused primarily by P. thomsoni, is particularly notable in urban areas where the impact of browning tree crowns in mid-to-late summer raises public concern. The initial outbreak in Anchorage in 1996 increased to more than 32,000 ac by 2003. That same year, a survey was initiated to determine the extent of leaf mining sawflies throughout most of the state. Adult emergence, flight period, and larval phenology were assessed also. Surveys done through 2006 show that P. thomsoni is present...
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The ambermarked birch leafminer, Profenusa thomsoni Konow (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae), was first discovered in Alaska in 1991 but was not correctly identified until 1996 when it invaded Anchorage and became a widespread and damaging pest to forest and urban birches. In 2003, the parasitoid wasp, Lathrolestes thomsoni Reshchikov (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), was selected as a candidate for a classical biological control program against P. thomsoni. Parasitized leafminer larvae were collected from the Northwest Territories and Alberta, Canada, where it was previously introduced and causing injury to Betula spp., and transferred to Alaska in soil as pre-pupae for emergence. From 2004 to 2008, 3636 adult L. thomsoni...
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