Canadian Forest Service Publications
Origin and distribution of the Yew Big Bud Mite, Cecidophyopsis psilaspis (Nalepa), in British Columbia. 1997. Mitchell, A.K.; Duncan, R.W.; Bown, T.A.; Marshall, V.G. The Canadian Entomologist 129(4): 745-755.
Year: 1997
Issued by: Pacific Forestry Centre
Catalog ID: 32959
Language: English
Availability: Not available through the CFS (click for more information).
Available from the Journal's Web site. †
DOI: 10.4039/Ent129745-4
† This site may require a fee
Abstract
The distribution of the yew big bud mite, Cecidophyopsis psilaspis (Nalepa), a pest causing severe damage to Pacific yew, Taxus brevifolia Nutt., was determined within British Columbia. From 1992 to 1994, vegetative and reproductive buds on branch samples collected from 38 interior and 43 coastal populations of Pacific yew were examined for the occurrence of the mite. Mite damage was characterized by marked swelling and browning of both vegetative and reproductive buds. Interior Pacific yew populations were found to be mite free, whereas coastal yew populations were mite infested, except at three high-elevation (>700 m) coastal locations which were apparently mite free. At three other sites, individual trees without symptoms of mite attack did harbour low-density, nondamaging mite populations. The hypothesis that this mite is indigenous is less supported than the hypothesis that it was introduced to British Columbia on English yew, Taxus baccata L., and is limited to its present distribution by climatic and mountain barriers.