University of California, Riverside scientists are using 3-D printing technology to study a beetle that is causing severe damage to avocado and landscape trees in Southern California.
The beetle in question is the polyphagous shot hole borer, an ambrosia beetle that originated in Southeast Asia. It has a symbiotic relationship with a fungus (Fusarium euwallaceae). Researchers Richard Stouthamer, Akif Eskalen and R. Duncan Selby are using the new technology to accelerate their study of this beetle-fungus complex.
To infect the trees with the fungus, the polyphagous shot hole borer drills holes in the trees. It then burrows deep inside the tree, crippling the vascular tissue — the water-transporting mechanism — and blocking the transport of water and nutrients from the roots to the rest of the trees.