The emerald ash borer, Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire, 1888 (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), is a harmful East Asian insect pest damaging ash trees Fraxinus spp. Over the past three decades, it has invaded European part of Russia and Ukraine, causing widespread mortality of ash trees in both urban and natural ecosystems. Here, we report first occurrence of this devastating pest in Belarus, specifically in the city of Gomel. During reconnaissance survey performed in the late June 2025, a total of 46 ash trees, including 39 Fraxinus pennsylvanica and 7 F. excelsior trees, displayed characteristic symptoms of infestation: canopy dieback, epicormic sprouting, and distinct D-shaped exit holes in the bark. A single larva of the IV instar was found within a typical gallery beneath the bark, and 13 adult beetles mating and feeding on the foliage of both ash species were recorded. Given the proximity of infested regions in neighboring countries – specifically Bryansk (243 km away from Gomel) and Smolensk (270 km) in Russia, as well as Kiev (220 km) in Ukraine – it is suspected that the buprestid was accidentally introduced from some of these localities rather than expanding its range by itself. Urgent research is required to delineate the extent of its spread within Belarus. Moreover, decisive actions must be taken promptly to suppress current infestation foci and prevent further distribution of this highly aggressive alien pest.

Keywords

EAB, buprestid, Fraxinus pennsylvanica, F. excelsior, invasion, East Europe

The Emerald Ash Borer, Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), is a highly destructive East Asian insect pest that continues extending its secondary range in Europe, causing severe decline of ash trees Fraxinus spp. (Oleaceae) (Musolin et al. 2017; Orlova-Bienkowskaja et al. 2020; Meshkova et al 2023; Sun et al. 2024). The loss of ash trees triggers a cascade of dramatic consequences leading to the decline of biodiversity in ash-related communities (Wagner and Todd 2015; Hultberg et al. 2020), exacerbating landscape degradation (Kolka et al. 2018), and compromising the aesthetic integrity of urban environments (Schrader et al. 2021). Agrilus planipennis is officially listed as a quarantine pest for the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), encompassing five post-Soviet nations (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia), and for the EPPO region, which includes 52 member countries, predominantly European. Given the ongoing invasion, rapid decline of ash plantings and associated ecological and economic consequences, A. planipennis is of an enormous concern for Europe (Musolin et al. 2017).

For the first time in Europe, A. planipennis was documented in Russia, specifically in urban plantations of Moscow in 2005 (Mozolevskaya and Izhevsky 2007; Baranchikov et al. 2008). Subsequent dendrochronological studies indicated that the species might have been present in Moscow as early as 1992 (Baranchikov et al. 2016). Over the past two decades, this buprestid has distributed within European Russia, occupying 23 administrative regions (Sun et al. 2024; Baranchikov and Ponomarev 2024; Baranchikov et al. 2024a). Several of these regions, including Rostov, Voronezh, Belgorod, Kursk, Bryansk, Smolensk, and Leningrad, share borders with Eastern European countries such as Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland. In 2019, the pest was first detected in Ukraine (Drogvalenko et al. 2019), reaching Kiev by 2023 (EPPO 2023; Meshkova et al., 2024), continuing expanding its secondary range westwards.

So far, this invasive pest has not been detected in Belarus, despite survey efforts (Orlova-Bienkowskaja et al. 2020). On the Russian side, A. planipennis was documented is Smolensk Region in 2018, just 70 km from the border with Belarus, suggesting that the pest may sooner or later enter the country (Baranchikov and Seraya 2018).

Here we provide data on the earliest occurrence of A. planipennis in Belarus, in Gomel region, where the pest was least expected. At the first time, the data of survey of ash plantings in four regions of Gomel city and the illustration of characteristic damage, larvae and adults are given, the suggestive donor regions and invasion vectors are mentioned. These data are highly important for developing urgent strategy to mitigate the impact and combat the further spread of this aggressive tree pest.

The study was conducted in Belarus in four administrative regions: Vitebsk, Lyozna, and Orsha from June to July annually between 2018 and 2025 (Fig. 1A). These three regions, situated in northeastern Belarus, were selected for surveys bearing in mind their proximity to Russian territories invaded by A. planipennis (Baranchikov and Seraya 2018) and their connectivity via railway and motorway with Smolensk, Russia. In 2025, the reconnaissance survey was expended to Gomel, located in south-eastern Belarus, bearing in mind that A. planipennis was detected in Ukraine in 2019, including in Kiev in 2023 (EPPO 2023).

In the mentioned above regions, plantings along intercity roads, mostly consisted of the North American ash Fraxinus pennsylvanica, were inspected. Significant attention was also paid to urban ash plantings of the main cities (Vitebsk, Lioznensky, Orsha, and Gomel). Where present, the European ash, F. excelsior was also examined. The trees of these ash species were visually inspected for the presence of characteristic symptoms: canopy dieback, epicormic sprouting, exit D-holes in bark in low or middle part of on the main trunk.

In Gomel, ash trees were examined in city parks and alleys in all four city districts (Fig. 1B). Additionally, ashes growing in the Park of the Gomel Palace and Park Ensemble (Centralniy District) were examined (Fig. 1B). The infested ash trees were assigned to a certain category according to their health conditions as per the classification proposed by Alekseev (1989), with the modification by Baranchikov et al. (2024b), summarized in Table 1.

Upon detecting D-shaped exit holes, sections of bark measuring 20×30 cm were carefully removed from the main trunk (up to 2 m above ground) to inspect for larval galleries. This procedure was applied selectively to ash trees representing varied levels of health condition within Gomel, specifically at Kosmonavtov Avenue and Vladimirova st. 10b. Opportunistically, ash foliage was also checked to find the beetle adults. The damaged trees, the beetle larva and adults were photographed using the digital camera incorporated in smartphone Xiaomi14T (China).

Identification of A. planipennis was carried out by morphological features of the imago (relatively big size; color features; distinctive spine-like projection on pygidium) and larvae (bell-shaped abdominal segments) (Volkovitsh et al. 2020; Baranchikov et al. 2024b). The larval instar was identified based on the size of urogomphi (Orlova-Bienkowskaja and Bienkowski 2016).

To determine how the buprestid could spread to Belarus, ash plantations along roads and in settlements on the routes leading to regional centers (Vetka, Dobrush, Rogachev) and to the nearest borders of Belarus (motorways M10, E95, P30, P35, P85, P125, H4382, H4384) were examined. The data on ash trees infested by A. planipennis in Gomel and possible spread routes were mapped using ESRI ArcGIS Pro 3.1 software (ESRI 2024).

During reconnaissance survey conducted in Gomel on June 27–28, 2025, characteristic symptoms of A. planipennis infestation were observed on both F. pennsylvanica and F. excelsior trees. They included canopy dieback, epicormic sprouting, and distinct D-shaped exit holes in the bark (Fig. 2). Furthermore, examination of four F. pennsylvanica trees in distant localities within the city (Cosmonauts Av., Vladimirov st.) revealed the presence of larval galleries (Fig. 2B).

Within one gallery on F. pennsylvanica, a living larva of A. planipennis was found (Fig. 3A, B). The length of urogomphi (the paired structures located on the terminal abdominal segment) was 0.92 mm, corresponding to the IV instar larva (Orlova-Bienkowskaja and Bienkowski 2016).

On June 27, in few streets of Gomel (Cosmonauts Av., M.G. Efremov st., Dokutovich st.), at a day temperature of 23°C, 13 beetles of A. planipennis were recorded (Fig. 3). Of them, two beetles were mating (Fig. 2E), six were resting, and five were feeding on the leaves of F. pennsylvanica (2 feeding beetles documented) and F. excelsior (3 feeding beetles).

Altogether, 46 trees infested by A. planipennis were identified across three districts of Gomel: Zheleznodorozhniy (railway district), Sovetskiy, and Centralniy (Figure 4, Table 2). Of these, 39 belonged to F. pennsylvanica and seven to F. excelsior. Notably, the majority of infested trees were situated in areas proximate to railway tracks, particularly those leading to Bryansk in European Russia and Kiev in Ukraine (Fig. 4). No infested trees were observed in the Novobelitskiy district, located in the southeastern part of Gomel.

Six trees, all belonging to F. pennsylvanica, were assigned to the category V 'Freshly dead trees' (Fig. 4, red circles). Characteristics of these trees included dead crowns, exit holes with light-brown interior surfaces on the main trunk, and the presence of epicormic shoots. Majority of the infested trees, constituting 29 out of 46 (approximately 63%), fell into the category IV 'Dying trees' (Fig. 4, yellow circles); among these, 25 trees were F. pennsylvanica (54%) and four were F. excelsior (9%). Despite being classified as dying, these trees retained scattered live branches with small or chlorotic foliage. Remaining nine infested trees, i.e., six F. pennsylvanica and three F. excelsior, belonged to the category III 'Significantly weakened trees' (Fig. 4, orange circles).

No larval parasitoids were observed within the larval galleries in F. pennsylvanica and F. excelsior trees in the surveyed districts of Gomel.

Since 2018, we have conducted visual inspections of ash trees planted alongside major motorways crossing Vitebsk, Lioznensky, and Orsha regions of Belarus, as well as in their principal urban centers. Given the proximity of these regions to Russia, specifically the neighboring Smolensk and Bryansk regions (Fig. 5), where the pest had already been reported in recent years (Baranchikov and Seraya 2018; Shelukho 2021), we hypothesized that A. planipennis could accidently enter Belarus. The plantings along motorways were considered as a potential corridor for the distribution of A. planipennis, as in Belarus, both ash species, F. pennsylvanica and F. excelsior, are widely used in such plantings, as well as commonly utilized in landscaping in Belorussian towns and cities (Zviagintsev et al. 2015). However, our suggestion that the pest could spread to northeast regions of Belarus failed: no evidence of A. planipennis infestation was observed in these regions between 2018 and 2025. Surprisingly, in June 2025, we discovered the invasive buprestid during reconnaissance survey of ash trees in the southeastern part of Belarus, specifically within the city of Gomel. While our present paper was under the review in the journal, we came across a short note in a newspaper that other team detected A. planipennis in Gomel too, in June 2025 (Usenia and Pomaz 2025). In their note, the authors informed about the species detection in the city and its identification through DNA-barcoding.

In contrast, we provided data on the pest spread within Gomel and the state of impacted trees. Importantly, we noticed absence of the typical signs of ash tree damage attributed to A. planipennis in both near Gomel and along motorways leading toward the borders with Russia and Ukraine. This observation makes us thinking that the insect did not disperse naturally but was most likely inadvertently transported via railway lines linking Belarus with neighboring regions (Fig. 5). Indeed, according to our fieldwork, the majority of affected trees in Gomel are clustered in close proximity to railway tracks.

Railway transport (Short et al. 2020) and cars (Gninenko et al. 2016) are considered as primary vectors of A. planipennis distribution over long distances. Considering that cross-border train and vehicle communication between Belarus and Ukraine stopped in February 2022, it is most probable that the pest was accidently transported to Belarus, i.e., to Gomel, from Russia. Indeed, direct railway connections and roads link Gomel to Russia via Bryansk Region.

The dangerous quarantine species A. planipennis has been documented in Belarus, extending its presence more than 200 km beyond the previously recognized western limit of its secondary range in Russia and Ukraine. Our finding confirms the species potential for rapid long-distance dispersal facilitated by unintentional human-mediated transportation via railways and motorways. To date, A. planipennis has been detected exclusively within urban tree plantations in Gomel. However, given its ability to damage indigenous Europe ash, F. excelsior, there is a high risk that the invasive pest may continue distributing throughout Belarus, posing a threat to vulnerable ash forest ecosystems. Transport networks both within Belarus and between Belarus and adjacent European Union member states, namely Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, increase the likelihood of further westward dispersal of this buprestid beetle. The comprehensive measures aimed at suppressing the pest foci are to be urgently implemented in order to prevent further spread and mitigate the cascade of negative impacts associated with the invasion of A. planipennis.

We thank Irina Mikhailova and Mikhail Korets (Sukachev Institute of Forest SB RAS, Krasnoyarsk, Russia) for helping with mapping. The study was performed with the partial support of the Russian Science Foundation (grant no. 22-16-00075-P).

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