Book Review

Author(s): C. L. Bellamy
Source: The Coleopterists Bulletin, 66(2):118-119. 2012.
Published By: The Coleopterists Society
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1649/072.066.0205
URL: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1649/072.066.0205

BioOne (www.bioone.org) is a nonprofit, online aggregation of core research in the

biological, ecological, and environmental sciences. BioOne provides a sustainable online
platform for over 170 journals and books published by nonprofit societies, associations,
museums, institutions, and presses.
Your use of this PDF, the BioOne Web site, and all posted and associated content
indicates your acceptance of BioOne’s Terms of Use, available at www.bioone.org/page/
terms_of_use.
Usage of BioOne content is strictly limited to personal, educational, and non-commercial
use. Commercial inquiries or rights and permissions requests should be directed to the
individual publisher as copyright holder.

BioOne sees sustainable scholarly publishing as an inherently collaborative enterprise connecting authors, nonprofit publishers,
academic institutions, research libraries, and research funders in the common goal of maximizing access to critical research.
The Coleopterists Bulletin, 66(2): 118–119. 2012.
BOOK REVIEW
JENDEK, E., AND V. GREBENNIKOV. 2011. AGRILUS (COLEOPTERA, BUPRESTIDAE) OF EAST ASIA.
Prague, Jan Farkač, 362 pages. 68 color plates. A4. Price: 120 € (ca. US$162.00). ISBN: 978-80-
903590-6-2 (https://sites.google.com/site/agrilusofeastasia). Order directly from the publisher:
Jan Farkač ( jan.farkac.vlk@volny.ck), Jakub Rolčik (Jakub@cleridae.cz) or various on-line
entomology and natural history book-sellers.
Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins.
Which of the two has the grander view?
Victor Hugo
Occasionally, I’ve wondered how much more
of the earth’s biodiversity could be described for
the same amount we spend sending the next probe
to Mars or building the next stealth bomber? For-
tunately, many people do instead of stew! The
authors have introduced the topic of this impressive
new hard-bound volume, the genus Agrilus Curtis,
1815, by citing the 2,784 valid species listed in
the recent world catalogue (Bellamy 2008). In the
accumulation of publications since 2008, the genus
Agrilus has increased to 2,879 species. In this new
volume, 73 new species and one new subspecies are
described, two species are “revalidated”, one species
is downgraded to subspecies, and 69 new synonyms
are proposed for a net gain of five additional species
and two additional subspecies that yields a total
of 2,884 species and 103 subspecies. Jendek and
118
Grebennikov go on to state “…as presently known,
Agrilus appears to be the most speciose convention-
ally accepted genus in the entire Animal Kingdom.”
Agrilus of East Asia is the direct result of the
introduction and establishment of the emerald ash
borer (EAB), Agrilus plannipennis Fairmaire, 1888
(this volume’s cover girl, too!), a native of East
Asia, into the north-east-central United States and
adjacent Canada (Haack et al. 2002). Because
EAB likes ash trees (Fraxinus spp., Oleaceae),
the seemingly unstoppable spread of this invasive
species threatens pristine forest, the timber indus-
try, and a national past-time. The favored wood
for baseball bats is northern white ash, Fraxinus
americana L.
The book is organized into three main sections
(in bold) and subdivisions: Abstract; Introduction;
Acknowledgements; Abbreviations and Codens;
Material and Methods: General Conventions, Geo-
graphical Coverage, Information Resources, Data
Gathering and Processing, Format of Taxonomic
Data; Morphology; Taxonomy: Subgeneric Clas-
sification, Species Groups, Taxonomic Inventory of
Agrilus Taxa of East Asia; Analysis: Taxonomic-
nomenclatural Analysis, Examined Material, Host
Plants, Taxa Diversity, Distribution, Biogeographic
Analysis, Similarity of Sub-regional Faunas, Con-
clusions; Literature Cited; Appendices I-V: New
Taxonomic and Nomenclatural Acts, Synoptic Cata-
log of East Asian Agrilus, Checklist of Species-
group Names (Available and Unavailable), Regional
Distribution of Agrilus of East Asia, Morphological
Characteristic of Agrilus Species-groups of East Asia;
Plates. The 68 color plates are numbered as consecu-
tive alphanumeric figures, e.g. 1A-1D, 5A-5DD, con-
taining 1,053 individual color images. Figures 1 to 7:
Agrilus morphology; 8 to 31: Habitus of Agrilus
(264 habitus images); 32 to 41: Aedeagi of Agrilus
(248 aedeagus images); 42 to 54: Agrilus type speci-
mens (325 type images); 55 to 57B: Data analysis
of Agrilus of East Asia (14 graphs); 57C to 68: Bio-
geography of Agrilus (29 maps).
One feature lacking is simultaneously surprising
and not…..a key! Imagine the effort needed to con-
struct an old-fashioned (pre-Lucid) binary key to
separate the 278 Agrilus spp. from the target area
of East Asia. Consider the difficulties that many
of us have found trying to work through a long
key, perhaps one that is all words and no figures,
 THE COLEOPTERISTS BULLETIN 66(2), 2012
e.g. Fisher’s (1928) revision of North American
(north of Mexico) Agrilus, therein 118 spp.; the only
figures given were of male genitalia that were not
utilized in the key. Jendek and Grebennikov state
that some of the 278 species in the study region
remain inadequately known and they “firmly believe
that East Asia still harbours hundreds of undetected
species.” They reason that a key based on such a
dearth of knowledge would likely be of little use
to the reader. So in the absence of a key, readers
are invited to do one of two things: 1) compare
specimens to the color dorsal habitus figures to find
the species most closely resembled or 2) send the
specimens to the authors in Ottawa.
There are some minor grammatical issues. English
is difficult unless you grow up speaking it; the best
way for others to deal with the task as large as pre-
paring a large volume such as this would be to have
it reviewed carefully, especially with regards to
tense, sentence structure (except for telegraphic style
for descriptions) and, of course, spelling. For exam-
ple, page 7 of the Introduction, second paragraph
begins: “The demand for the present work was
primarily triggered by [the] recent North American
outbreak of the highly invasive A. planipennis …”
and in the next paragraph, the third sentence: “Any
other result could hardly be expected …” There are
few actual typos, but on page 83: “subspeies” stands
out. Despite the well-known and widely used Insect
and Spider Collections of the World website (hbs.
bishopmuseum.org/codens/codens-r-us.html), this
volume (page 10) unnecessarily reinvents some
institutional codens that have been in use for many
years. We simply do not need a new set of collec-
tions defined for each subsequent volume and paper
to reference specimen deposition. Lastly, there is
no explanation as to why there are two authors of
the volume but all taxonomic acts are credited only
to the senior author. There are many such situations
in the literature (e.g. Westcott et al. 2008), but still
I cringe when I consider the potential strain on
many individual ligaments and carpel tunnels as I
type citations of 73 new species as Jendek in Jendek
and Grebennikov 2011!
119
The quality of the book is high, printed on good
paper, with nicely reproduced color figures, and is
a good investment for the price, if your department
buys you a copy. If, however, you live in East Asia,
work in an under-funded natural history museum
(is that redundant?), or are a retired, and thus
amateur, specialist, the price is not insignificant.
Considering the combined expenditure from two
national agriculture departments jointly tasked
to understand and control EAB, having copies
of this book on shelves in numerous offices and
laboratories will not bust the budget. However,
it remains to be seen whether or not the avail-
ability of this tome will contribute materially to
the goal of containment and eradication of EAB in
North America.
REFERENCES CITED
Bellamy, C. L. 2008. A World Catalogue and Bibliography
of the Jewel Beetles (Coleoptera: Buprestoidea).
Volume 4: Agrilinae: Agrilina through Trachyini.
Pensoft Series Faunistica No. 79, pp. 1932–2684,
Pensoft Publishers, Sofia, Bulgaria.
Fisher, W. S. 1928. A revision of the North American
species of buprestid beetles belonging to the genus
Agrilus. United States National Museum Bulletin
145: 1–347.
Haack, R. A., E. Jendek, H. Liu, K. R. Marchant,
T. R. Petrice, and H. Ye. 2002. The emerald
ash borer: a new exotic pest in North America.
Newsletter of the Michigan Entomological
Society 47(3&4): 1–5.
Westcott, R. L., H. A. Hespenheide, J. Romero N.,
A. Burgos Solorio, C. L. Bellamy, and A.
Equihua M. 2008. The Buprestidae (Coleoptera)
of Morelos, Mexico, with description of six
new species, and a partially annotated checklist.
Zootaxa 1830: 1–20.
C. L. Bellamy, Plant Pest Diagnostics Center, California
Department of Food & Agriculture, 3294 Meadowview
Road, Sacramento, CA 95832 U.S.A., cbellamy@cdfa.ca.gov
(Received 12 January 2012; accepted 29 January 2012.
Publication date 20 June 2012.)