Jaroslav Holusa

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Jaroslav verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

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• Ph.D.
• Head of Department at Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Introduction Climate change has led to rising atmospheric CO 2 levels and temperatures, projected to double CO 2 concentrations and increase temperatures by 2–5°C by the end of the 21 st century. These environmental changes influence plant primary and secondary metabolism, potentially altering plant-insect interactions. Herbivore performance depend...

Bark beetles feed and breed between the bark and the wood of various tree species. Pityophthorus micrographus (Curculionidae, Scolytinae), a small size Euro-Asian bark beetle species living in branches and twigs of fir and spruce trees, is most likely confused with P. pityographus. This misidentification leads to highly incorrect ecological conclus...

Key message The ambrosia beetle Xylosandrus compactus (Eichhoff, 1876), originally from Southeast Asia, was first found in Europe in 2010, specifically in Italy. Since then, X. compactus has rapidly spread across southern Europe, including France, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Malta, Slovenia, Russia, Croatia, and Switzerland, gradually moving northward t...

Occurrence data are essential for entomological studies, especially in evaluating climate impacts on insect populations. However, knowledge is distributed unevenly across regions, with some areas of Europe receiving considerably more study than others. While Xylocleptes bispinus, Pityokteines curvidens, Xyleborus dryographus, Xyleborus eurygraphus,...

Bark beetle Pityogenes chalcographus is a common species that can impact coniferous forests throughout Europe, especially Norway spruce. Under typical conditions, standard forestry management practices do not lead to increased population densities or pose significant threats to forest stands. This beetle multiplies after abiotic disturbances like w...

Bark beetle Pityokteines spinidens (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) is widespread across Europe. We identified this species as a pest of Tsuga canadensis in western Bohemia's Americká zahrada National Nature Monument Arboretum. This discovery suggests that P. spinidens could infest any conifer within the Abietoideae subfamily. Given its stat...

Key message Nemozoma elongatum (Linnaeus, 1761) shows a positive response to artificially produced lures targeting its two main prey species, Pityogenes chalcographus (Linnaeus, 1761) and Taphrorychus bicolor (Herbst, 1793), with a preference for P. chalcographus . We do not recommend using these lures in traps because they could unintentionally ca...

Global warming plays a major role in the disruption of forest ecosystems by bark beetle outbreaks. Decreasing precipitation and more frequent droughts create the conditions for water stress in trees. The Eurasian spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus L.) is more dangerous for Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) forests in Central Europe under the...

Introduction As a result of climate change and bark beetle outbreaks in forests, extensive salvage, and sanitary cutting have been undertaken in Europe, resulting in many clear-cuts with coarse stumps. The populations of pine weevils ( Hylobius abietis and Hylobius pinastri ) are steadily increasing. A high abundance of pine weevils feeding on seed...

Central Europe is not a typical wildfire region; however, an increasingly warm and dry climate and model-based projections indicate that the number of forest fires are increasing. This study provides new insights into the drivers of forest fire occurrence in the Czech Republic, during the period 2006 to 2015, by focusing on climate, land cover, and...

Gnathotrichus materiarius Fitch, 1858 is an invasive bark beetle that colonizes conifers and has spread widely in Europe. The beetle was introduced from North America to Western Europe, where it was first detected in France in 1933. In countries of Western and Northern Europe, the first detections were found at ports or airports, which probably ser...

The Emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire, 1888 (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), an invasive phloem-boring beetle, was first detected in the Luhansk Region of Ukraine in 2019. Subsequently, it rapidly expanded its presence to encompass a significant portion of the Kharkiv region and the parks of Kyiv. Previous research has established th...

In Europe, Xyleborinus attenuatus Blandford is considered an invasive bark beetle native to East Asia. We used the results of many local surveys and data from private and museum collections to get information on the distribution and abundance of X. attenuatus Blandford in the Czech Republic. The ambrosia beetle X. attenuatus Blandford is probably w...

Emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis, an invasive phloem-boring beetle, was detected in the Luhansk Region of Ukraine in 2019. In the following years, it expanded to a large part of the Kharkiv region and the parks of Kyiv. Previous research proved that the climate in Luhansk and neighboring regions is favorable for EAB, and the lack of a h...

Areas used for military training have a typical character of open sites with a varied mosaic of habitats and a significant representation of early successional stages. The diversity of habitats creates favorable conditions for species-rich plant and animal communities. This paper presents the results of a repeated inventory survey of Orthoptera spe...

Bark and ambrosia beetles pose significant threats to the stability of forest stands worldwide, making their control crucial. Among these pests, Gnathotrichus materiarius , a polyphagous invasive ambrosia beetle living on conifers, has successfully established itself in Europe. Early identification of these pests plays a fundamental role in designi...

Background Central Europe is not a typical wildfire region; however, an increasingly warm and dry climate and model-based projections indicate that the number of forest fires are increasing. This study provides new insights into the drivers of forest fire occurrence in the Czech Republic, during the period 2006 to 2015, by focusing on climate, land...

Invasive bark beetles pose a threat to native biodiversity and to functional ecosystems and the economic productivity of forests, parks, and orchards. In the Czech Republic, there are six species of invasive ambrosia and bark beetles with a stable natural population, and it can be assumed that other invasive species that will be found. In the Czech...

Forest fires are becoming a more significant problem in Central Europe, but their danger is not as high as that in Southern Europe. The exception, however, is forest fires occurring in disturbed areas (windthrow and bark beetle outbreak areas), which are comparable in severity and danger to the most serious forest fires. In this study, we describe...

Phloeosinus aubei is invasive in Central Europe, spreading northward from the Mediterranean region because of climate change. P. aubei has the potential to become a pest of mature, naturally occurring juniper trees (Juniperus communis) in protected areas, as well as junipers, thujas and cypresses in nurseries and urban environments. In 2020 and 202...

Ecology of grasshoppers and crickets in Carpathians. There are a lot of details on occurrence of orthopterans in forest, on forest clearings, along the forest roads and in Nardus stricta grasslands.

Emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis, is a phloem-boring beetle, native to East Asia that has become a serious invasive pest of ash (Fraxinus spp.) trees in North America and European Russia since the early 2000s. In 2019, EAB was detected in Ukraine. It had spread over 300 km from the entry point over two years and killed hundreds of Fraxi...

The European mole cricket, Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa, feeds on a wide range of crops and can also damage plants with its burrowing activities. In suitable habitats (like those with damp, rich soils in flood plains), G. gryllotalpa numbers can increase to high levels. On the other hand, the abundance of G. gryllotalpa has dramatically decreased in nor...

IntroductionThe present changes in climate and land use have led to an increase in pest population densities. The oak pinhole borer, Platypus cylindrus, is one of the ambrosia beetles, which are known to infect wood tissue with fungi from their mycangia. These fungi are responsible for cellulose degradation. This species is now responsible for more...

Background The vulnerability of forests to fire results from complex interactions among climate, fuel availability (fuel load and moisture content of the vegetation), and ignition sources. The number of forest fires (FFs) has increased in many regions, therefore, it is necessary to reduce and monitor the fire risk. Based on data from 2006 to 2015,...

Many exotic pine species are planted in Europe. These pines are tested for resistance to ozone, sulfur dioxide , drought and frost. However, their resistance can be reduced by bark beetles. In Poland the bark beetles Pityophthorus pityographus and Pityophthorus lichtensteinii were detected on Pinus armandi and Pinus ×schwerinii pines. In Europe the...

Panolis flammea is an important pest whose populations intermittently outbreak in Europe. The species overwinters as pharate moths in the pupal stage in soil. Details on the metabolic activity and cold hardiness of P. flammea during the overwintering period have not been published. Therefore, we assessed O2 consumption and the supercooling point (S...

Urban areas have increased greatly in recent decades, which has resulted in habitat loss. However, the promotion of urban green spaces could have a profound effect on biodiversity. Traditional fruit orchards are an important land-use type with the potential to host myriad organisms. Our goal was to determine the most important factors that influenc...

This paper presents a new analysis of how global warming may affect the size of forest fires through its effects on air temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed. The effects of attack time on the size of the final burned area were also determined simultaneously in the statistical analysis. Two nonlinear functions determining the size of f...

In this report, we describe a local outbreak of small bark beetles on 4-year-old seedlings of Picea abies in a forest nursery in Central Europe in 2021. In March 2022, 10–50% of the seedlings were “dry” (i.e., with dry and easily broken twigs and with easily peeled bark) in each 4-row bed in the nursery. Half of the dry plants were completely cover...

Adults of the large pine weevil (Hylobius abietis) cause serious damage to coniferous seedlings and are among the most important forest pests in Europe. Seedling protection by chemicals is gradually being restricted or banned for environmental reasons, and non-chemical alternatives are therefore needed. In this 3-year study, we compared the followi...

Although previous research has documented the occurrence of antagonists of bark beetles, the studies have only evaluated individual antagonists and have not assessed the overall effect of all antagonists on adult beetles. In this study, we determined which body-cavity antagonists were associated with a reduction in the fecundity and maternal galler...

The certified methodology represents the original results of research and development, which were carried out by the authors’ team, including the novelty of measures against large larch bark beetle and specific applications for prevention, monitoring and control of this species. Ips cembrae prefers larch (Larix spp.) of all ages as a host tree in a...

Polydrusus aeratus Gravenhorst, 1807 is a pest of both coniferous and deciduous trees in forests. It is widespread throughout the Czech Republic from the lowlands to the mountains. Adult beetles occur from April to September. In the western Czech Republic, a number of 1- to 2-m tall Abies alba were recently damaged by P. aeratus adults at an altitu...

Adults of the large pine weevil ( Hylobius abietis ) cause serious damage to coniferous seedlings and are among the most important forest pests in Europe. Seedling protection by chemicals is gradually being restricted or banned for environmental reasons, and non-chemical alternatives are therefore needed. In this 3-year study, we compared the follo...

Although previous research has documented the occurrence of antagonists of bark beetles, the studies have only evaluated individual antagonists and have not assessed the overall effect of all antagonists on adult beetles. In this study, we determined which antagonists were associated with reduction in the fecundity and maternal gallery lengths of t...

Paper is now published in Heliyon Volume 9, Issue 4, April 2023, e14826. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14826

This paper presents a new approach to identifying the climate variables that influence the size of the area burned by forest wildfires. Multiple linear regression was used in combination with nonlinear variable transformations to determine relevant nonlinear forest wildfire size functions. Data from the Prague-East District of the Czech Republic wa...

Exotic coniferous trees in forests adjacent to spa towns and in parks within spa towns are increasingly being attacked by outbreak populations of native bark beetles in western Bohemia (Central Europe). In the 12 localities in western Czech Republic the current study, we detected a total of 19 native bark beetle species infesting more than 10% of e...

OPTIMIZATION OF FELLED TRAP TREES FOR BARK BEETLES CONTROL

The medicinal plants industry, particularly in regard to products rich in biologically active substances for maintaining health, has grown by leaps and bounds in the last decade, with sales of over-the-counter drugs containing these substances growing by billions of dollars. Attention has thus also been paid to the safety and effectiveness of these...

Research Highlights: The percentage of canopy closure was found to be the main factor associated with ambrosia beetle abundance and species richness. The latter two variables increased as canopy closure increased, probably because a high percentage of canopy closure provides a stable and humid environment suitable for the growth of ambrosia fungi....

Bark beetles are the most important forest pests in the Northern Hemisphere. The range of Ips duplicatus, an invasive bark beetle in central Europe, has been steadily expanding, and it is now responsible for a high proportion of the spruce wood infested by bark beetles. Apart from searching for and eliminating infested trees, there is no effective...

Cryphalus asperatus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae, Scolytinae) is described as an exceptional but important secondary pest of Norway spruce seedlings. Of the 10 000 seedlings transported to one location in the Ore Mountains, Central Europe in 2020, in total 1 500 seedlings were killed by C. asperatus. The infestation and death of seedlings probably re...

Tanymecus dilaticollis is an important pest of maize and sunflowers in eastern Europe. In the present study, we examined the effectiveness of two commercially available bioinsecticides against T. dilaticollis adults under laboratory conditions: Naturalis^® based on the Beauveria bassiana fungus and an azadirachtin-based botanical product...

Long periods of drought and mild winters have significantly affected the forests of the Czech Republic in recent years. If this trend continues, forest stands will be weakened and dehydrated, which will increase the probability that forest fires will occur and spread. It is essential that fire managers prepare for this possibility. A main requireme...

The gypsy moth is one of the most serious pests in forests and fruit tree plantations over prevailing parts of the Northern Hemisphere. This work is based on a literature review, and presents history of gypsy moth Lymantria dispar L., observed in Slovak forests within the period 1945–2020. The life cycle, hosts, natural enemies, population dynamics...

The article presents internet services running on the websites www.skodcoviadrevin.sk and www. los.sk/mavysk/. Service www.skodcoviadrevin.sk is the digital online version of the printed atlas, previously published by the team of researchers working at Forest Protection Service. It is designed to identify pests of trees and shrubs and is intended f...

Machine learning algorithms (MLAs) are used to solve complex non-linear and high-dimensional problems. The objective of this study was to identify the MLA that generates an accurate spatial distribution model of bark beetle (Ips typographus L.) infestation spots. We first evaluated the performance of 2 linear (logistic regression, linear discrimina...

Coniferous forests in Europe have a considerable number of pests that attack trees of all ages from youngest up to oldest ones. One of them is the large pine weevil Hylobius abietis. This species is widespread in Europe and occurs from warm southern areas (Spain) up to northern countries (Sweden, Finland). Larvae of this species do not cause damage...

The gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar, is one of the most important pests of deciduous trees in Europe, occurring in all environmental zones of Europe except the Alpine North and part of the Boreal zone. The gypsy moth fungal pathogen Entomophaga maimaiga, originally from Asia, was imported from the USA and released in Bulgaria, in 1999–2000. Spread of...

Non-native trees have been introduced into Europe for hundreds of years. Some have become an important part of the human diet, and many have aesthetic value. Nevertheless, some of them became aliens and host other alien species that might have undesirable effects on native organisms. We studied the possible effects of an alien-alien relationship (f...

The large pine weevil (Hylobius abietis) is an important pest of freshly planted coniferous trees. Feeding damage to conifer seedlings can be prevented by protecting the seedlings (mechanically or chemically), or by reducing H. abietis abundance. The entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana has promise for H. abietis control. To test the effects...

Tropical forests have high biodiversity. Nevertheless limited information is available about the species richness of fungus weevils in the family Anthribidae in disturbed and undisturbed tropical forests. Anthribids are saproxylic, i.e., they depend on dead wood. Our aim was to investigate the relationships between the species richness of anthribid...

Ambrosia beetles, including Cyclorhipidion bodoanum, are frequently introduced into new areas through the international trade of wood and wood products. Cyclorhipidion bodoanum is native to eastern Siberia, the Korean Peninsula, Northeast China, Southeast Asia, and Japan but has been introduced into North America, and Europe. In Europe, it was firs...

Simple Summary The abundance of bark beetles is generally explained by resource-related parameters. The bark beetle Phloeotribus rhododactylus feeds mainly on the shrub Cytisus scoparius. Other host plants include Spartium junceum, Cytisus sp., Ulex europaeus, Calicotome sp., Coronilla emeroides, Genista florida, Adenocarpus complicatus, and Ficus...

Ips cembrae is the most important bark beetle pest of larches and has had several local outbreaks in recent decades in Europe. In this study, we compared the numbers of I. cembrae captured by pyramid-trap piles, trap trees, pheromone traps, and poisoned and baited tripods. We also studied how the properties of trap trees and trap logs (volume, sun...

The spectrum of Mesostigmata mite species that are phoretic on the bark beetle Ips typographus has been well described. However, phoretic mite abundance has mostly been quantified by researchers who used only a single method for capturing bark beetles: pheromone traps. We therefore compared mite abundance using two beetle-capture methods. At a sing...

Outbreaks of the European spruce bark beetle Ips typographus kill extensive areas of Norway spruce forests in Central Europe, affecting both protected areas and neighboring commercial forests. In protected areas, uncontrolled (non-intervention) management allows natural beetle-induced tree mortality, while in commercial forests infested trees are s...

Damages caused by leaf-eating and sucking insect have a decreasing intensity in Slovakia, during recent years. In 2019, quite high population density of geometer moths and leafroller moths persist in oak forests with decreasing tendency, intense swarming of cockchafers, occurrence of gall midge Thecodiplosis brachyntera in mountain pine forests of...

The European spruce bark beetle Ips typographus L. causes significant economic losses in managed coniferous forests in Central and Northern Europe. New infestations either occur in previously undisturbed forest stands (i.e., spot initiation) or depend on proximity to previous years' infestations (i.e., spot spreading). Early identification of newly...

Ambrosia beetles are among the most damaging forest pests. They are frequently moved intercontinentally and are therefore subject to quarantines. The objective of the current research was to determine whether two commercially produced lures for Trypodendron species also attract central European ambrosia beetles. In 2018, Theysohn^® traps...

The large pine weevil (Hylobius abietis L.) is an important pest of young forest stands in Europe. Larvae develop under the bark of freshly cut pine and spruce stumps, but maturing weevils feed on the bark of coniferous seedlings. Such seedlings frequently die because of bark consumption near the root collar. We tested the effect of three treatment...

Invasive organisms represent great threats to ecosystems and great challenges to forest management. In Europe, the black timber bark beetle (Xylosandrus germanus) is an invasive secondary pest that mostly attacks the logs of felled trees. We showed the invasion history for Europe and using many local surveys, we summarize the current distribution a...

Research Highlights: Although a number of forestry studies have found that hydrogel improves tree performance, studies that are located in semi-arid regions and that include a broad spectrum of tree species and the assessment of multiple physiological traits are lacking. Background and Objectives: The objective of the current study was to evaluate...

In recent years, the problem of young forest stand pests has an increasing trend. It is caused mainly by seedling pests of genus Hylobius and Hylastes. The study compares two methods of trapping adults of those pests, a pitfall trap, and a trap bark. In capturing genus Hylobius, the difference between the two types of traps was not significant, sin...

The large pine weevil Hylobius abietis (Linnaeus 1758) is the main pest of coniferous seedlings in Europe and causes substantial damage in areas that have been clear-cut or otherwise disturbed. We compared the efficacy of different attractants for the capture of H. abietis adults in white pitfall traps. The field experiment was performed from mid-A...

The microsporidium Larssoniella duplicati (Weiser, Holuša, Žižka, 2006) is a specific pathogen of the bark beetle Ips duplicatus (C.R. Sahlberg, 1836), which is a serious pest of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst) in Europe. From 2011 to 2016, infection levels of L. duplicati and other pathogens in I. duplicatus populations were assessed alo...

In the period 2012–2015, an extensive mapping of the distribution of the Orthoptera in five regions of the Czech Republic (Jihočeský, Karlovarský, Středočeský, Vysočina and Ústecký regions) was carried out. The selected regions cover 43 % of the Czech Republic. The mapping unit used was a standardized square map of the grid mapping, in which the ha...

The small cypress bark beetle Phloeosinus aubei is considered an invasive pest in several central European countries, and we have determined its current distribution on common juniper trees (Juniperus communis) in the Czech Republic. The results indicated that P. aubei is widely distributed in the country but is more common in the east than in the...

One male of the horntail wasp Urocerus albicornis was found in the Czech Republic in 2018. The male probably emerged from imported timber, although it may have originated from an established population because it was collected during the flight period.

Winches have recently been used to extract timber from forests. Winches are often components of tractors, but tractors cannot be used on difficult terrain and are generally too expensive for small forest owners. The current study considers the use of an experimental winch for the extraction of timber from small plots with difficult terrain. The mob...

The gypsy moth Lymantria dispar is a serious economic pest in European broadleaf forests. However, the entomopathogenic fungus Entomophaga maimaiga, which has a great potential to regulate gypsy moth numbers, has recently spread in the Central and Eastern European area of the moth's range. In the current study, 39 plots in oak forests in the Slovak...

The rural landscapes surrounding large cities are rapidly becoming incorporated into the urban environment. The most conspicuous changes involve green spaces, such as former agro-forestry systems like fruit orchards. In this paper, we assess the influence on biodiversity of restoring a large urban traditional fruit orchard as reflected by six selec...

In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the term “hollow tree fire“ was first used in a publication in 1956 without being well defined and was then uncritically used in other publications. The term refers to fires occurring in the rotted, inner trunks of trees. The main aim of the current study was to determine whether the term should be considered a u...

For the past two decades in the Czech Republic, Norway spruce (Picea abies) trees have been weakened by drought and subsequent attack by the honey fungus and bark beetles. We determined whether thinning of trees decreased mortality at 40 forest locations in the Czech Republic. We also identified the species of honey fungus (Armillaria) associated w...

The flight activity of spruce tenthredinids were studied using Malaise traps and yellow sticky boards in young spruce forests in the Nízký Jeseník Hills during years 2005 and 2006. In most cases, studied species ( Pristiphora abietina, Pristiphora saxesenii, Pristiphora gerula, Pristiphora leucopodia ) showed a statistically significant correlation...

We provide fundamental information about the future development of selected climate elements in relation to anticipated threat to forests in the Czech Republic. All analyses were carried out in relation to four elevation zones with specific potential forest vegetation – up to 350 m a.s.l. (oak dominance), 350–600 m a.s.l. (beech dominance), 600–900...

Neuropteroid insects (Neuroptera, Raphidioptera) and scorpion flies (Mecoptera) were studied in six young spruce forest localities in the eastern part of the Czech Republic during years 2005 and 2006. Twenty-seven species of lacewings, four species of snake flies and four species of scorpion flies were found using the Malaise traps. Consequently, t...

The Czech Republic has a fragmented terrain and a dense network of forest paths, making it an area where forest fires seldom cause catastrophic damage. As a result, forest fires causes in the Czech Republic have been considered by only a few authors. Foresters, scientists, and the public, however, are increasingly concerned about understanding and...

The aim of the research was to determine the occurrence of insect’s pathogens and nematodes in Orthotomicus laricis (F.), Orthotomicus erosus (Wollaston), and Orthotomicus nobilis (Wollaston) in central-south Europe. We found three insect’s pathogens Chytridiopsis sp., Gregarina sp., Mattesia sp. and nonspecific gut nematodes and nematodes in the h...

Felled trap trees have been traditionally used to control bark beetles in central Europe. There is, however, little research on the method and on factors affecting trap tree performance. We therefore evaluated the effect of felling date, tree diameter, site shading, and weather conditions on the pattern of trap tree infestation by bark beetles. An...