The New Zealand Pinhole Borer(Platypus apicalis)

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By Olivia Mills

The New Zealand Pinhole Borer(Platypus apicalis)

• They are pests of beech and some other trees.

• They live in wood, boring deep into living and dead trees.

• Apart from destroying the wood they also allow fungus to grow.

• Although the species are native to New Zealand, they can still cause localised problems to trees when populations reach epidemic levels.

                                             

The body of a Pinhole Borer.

The New Zealand Pinhole Borer(Platypus apicalis)

• They infect the wood with spores they carry in specialised cavities. • The ability of the adult borer to contaminate larvae by transfer of fungus

spore was tested and found to occur in the laboratory.

• Adults are slender, brown, shining beetles, 5.5 mm long, with long yellow hairs.

• The borer larvae feeds on fungus growing on the inside holes of the wood, not like their parents.

A Pinhole Borer

The New Zealand Pinhole Borer(Platypus apicalis)

• Pinhole borers are first attracted to chemicals given off by unhealthy trees.

• If the tree is found to be suitable, the first arrivals give off a special chemical triggering a mass attack.

• Usually at this point, the tree’s natural defences fail, giving up to a combination of wood boring and fungi.

• The next borers enter via the tunnels the first beetles have created in the wood.

A Borer has created a tunnel.

A Borer