Four beetle (Coleoptera) species imported to Sweden with bamboo

Abstract

With the worldwide trade many organisms are unintentionally transported to new parts of the world. Here we report four Asian beetle (Coleoptera) species that were imported from China to Norrköping, Sweden in a container load of bamboo: Dinoderus minutus (Fabricius, 1775) and Heterobostrychus pileatus Lesne, 1899 in the family Bostrichidae and Zotalemimon ciliatum (Gressitt, 1942) and Niphona furcata (Bates, 1873) (Cerambycidae). The three latter are found for the first time in Sweden. All species are herbivores with bamboo as host plant. The beetles were found in the package despite it being treated with gas. This shows that the risk of spreading problematic organisms with worldwide trade is large even when we try to mitigate the problems.