Dormouse (Myoxus glis L., 1766) cortical injuries on beech. Do they predispose Nectria ditissima Tul. infections?

The dormouse (Myoxus glis L.) is widespread in all the Italian forests, islands included, from the sea level to the upper forest limit. Its diet is mainly vegetarian and includes many tree portions, among which it prefers seeds and fruits. Once spent the winter in a lethargy that, depending on the site, usually lasts from November to the beginning of May, in spring it begins its trophic activity on young cortex stripping the xylem in shape of wedge, ring or spiral at the basis of the distal shoot of conifers or on the younger branches of broadleaves. The fungus Nectria ditissima Tul. is a typical wound parasite that causes stem cankers on both beech and other broadleaves. Main symptoms are 1) the development of a wide, open canker at the infection point, which recovery is prevented by pathogenetic phenomena also due to further infections by wood decaying fungi, and 2) the stem defoliation and drying above the canker.