Establishment of the New Alien Pest Woolly Ash Aphid Prociphilus (Meliarhizophagus) fraxinifolii (Riley, 1979) in European Russia

Abstract

Woolly ash aphid or ash leaf curl aphid Prociphilus (Meliarhizophagus) fraxinifolii (Riley, 1979) is an alien invasive pest of ash native to North America. After its first record in Europe in 2003 in Hungary it has spread to the Ukraine, Serbia, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Spain, Poland and Germany. In 2016 P.(M.) fraxinifolii was recorded at the southwestern border of Russia. Here we report the establishment of P.(M.) fraxinifolii in the center of European Russia, namely in Moscow, which is more than 700 km far from all other known localities of the species. In September 2017 five groups of trees (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) with colonies of P. (M.) fraxinifolii were found. This record indicates that the pest continues to spread quickly and can appear in other regions of European Russia and neighboring countries including Baltic countries soon. Now Moscow is the only region, where the expanding range of P. (M.) fraxinifolii has overlapped with expanding ranges of other invasive alien species severely damaging ashes: ash dieback fungus Hymenoscyphus fraxineus (Ascomycota) and emerald ash borer Agrilus planipennis (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) and ecological interactions between these species can be studied.