Cnestus mutilatus (Blandford)

Beaver, R. A. & Liu, L. Y., 2010, An annotated synopsis of Taiwanese bark and ambrosia beetles, with new synonymy, new combinations and new records (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae), Zootaxa 2602, pp. 1-47 : 23-24

83. Cnestus mutilatus (Blandford)

Xyleborus mutilatus Blandford, 1894a:103 .

Distribution: Throughout the Oriental region from India to Indonesia and New Guinea, extending into the Palearctic region in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan. Introduced to and invasive in southern U. S. A. ( Haack 2006; Rabaglia et al. 2006). [4]

Hosts: A polyphagous species recorded in Taiwan from Cinnamomum camphora (Murayama 1934) , and Pinus spp. (Pinaceae) ( Yie & Tang 1966).

Biology: The biology has been studied in Japan by Kajimura and Hijii (1992, 1994), in China by Tang (2000), and in U. S. A. by Stone and colleagues (Stone & Nebeker 2007; Stone et al. 2007). The associated ambrosia fungus has recently been described by Six et al. (2009). It is a pest of young Castanea mollissima (Fagaceae) trees in China (Zhejiang) ( Tang 2000), but in USA appears to favour stressed host plants (Stone et al. 2007).

Taxonomy: Listed in Wood and Bright (1992) and more recent publications in the genus Xylosandrus Reitter , but transferred to Cnestus Sampson by Dole and Cognato (2010). The species has also been recorded from Taiwan as its synonym, Xyleborus taitonus Schedl ( Eggers 1939a) .