elm bark beetle

[elm bahrk beet-l]

noun

1. Also called smaller European elm bark beetle. a shiny, dark reddish-brown bark beetle, Scolytus multistriatus, originating in Europe and now widespread in the U.S.: the primary vector of Dutch elm disease.

2. Also called native elm bark beetle. a bark beetle, Hylurgopinus opaculus, of eastern North America, that also transmits Dutch elm disease.

Word History and Origins

Origin of elm bark beetle¹

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

While it takes someone like Ambourn to tell the difference between a velvet longhorned beetle and a banded elm bark beetle, she and Walrath said it’s imperative that average Minnesotans also pitch in when combating invasive species.

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By 1989, more than 75 percent had been lost to the disease, which is spread by the elm bark beetle.

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Blister rust, an introduced fungal disease, is laying waste to increasingly rare whitebark pines; the invasive banded elm bark beetle is felling elms already weakened by drought or Dutch elm disease.

Read more on New York Times

But since the 1930s, Dutch elm disease, spread by a pest called the elm bark beetle, has wiped out more than 100 million of the leafy giants.

Read more on Time Magazine Archive