Insect and other pests of poplars and willows.

This chapter presents a list of nearly 70 species illustrating the range of insects and mites that attack willows and poplars, the damage they cause and the severity of their attack in different parts of the world. The chapter shows that insect pests can be grouped largely according to their lifestyle, and so a brief overview is provided of the damage caused by insects as bud and leaf feeders, leaf miners, young shoot feeders, wood borers, root feeders and those that lead to the formation of often very distinctive galls. A few species are so widespread, or so consistently damaging, that they warrant more detailed description, and so a series of case studies of 16 representative insect species, or groups of similar species, is also included.