VIEW ARTICLE

Ecology and Epidemiology

Occurrence of Verticicladiella wagenerii and Its Perfect State, Ceratocystis wageneri sp. nov., in Insect Galleries. Donald J. Goheen, Plant Pathologist, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Insect and Disease Management, Portland, OR 97208; Fields W. Cobb, Jr., Associate Professor, Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Berkeley 94720. Phytopathology 68:1192-1195. Accepted for publication 3 March 1978. Copyright © 1978 The American Phytopathological Society, 3340 Pilot Knob Road, St. Paul, MN 55121. All rights reserved.. DOI: 10.1094/Phyto-68-1192.

Except for reports that Verticicladiella wagenerii can spread from tree to tree across root grafts and contacts, virtually no information is available on means of spread or inoculum production by the pathogen. Roots of 126 ponderosa pines located in infection foci were excavated and examined for evidence of insect activity and fungus sporulation. Conidiophores of V. wagenerii were found for the first time in one gallery each of a buprestid, a cerambycid, and an unidentified insect, in two galleries of Dendroctonus valens, and in 96 Hylastes macer galleries. The perfect state of V. wagenerii, described herein as Ceratocystis wageneri sp. nov., was found in 19 H. macer galleries. Evidence points to H. macer as a vector of the fungus.