Staff
Max Blake
BSc, PhD
BSc, PhD
Max heads up the entomology team within Tree Health and is currently responsible for over 20 staff members within the department.
As well as providing the team with the managerial support they need to deliver world class science, he also liaises closely with Defra, the Forestry Commission, Scottish Forestry and National Resources Wales on policy and the management of invasive insect pests of trees, as well as providing Advisory and Phytosanitary support to Tree Health. He has been the scientific lead on the Ips typographus eradication programme since 2020.
His research focusses on improving holistic surveillance techniques for invasive bark beetles, improving predictions of when and where invasive species will become problematic, refining the eradication and monitoring programme for Ips typographus, and applying molecular approaches to forest entomology.
Max joined Forest Research in 2017 after working on beetles at Aberystwyth University, including population genetics (microsatellites, DNA barcoding), species distribution modelling, and fungal metabarcoding.
Forest Research
Alice Holt Lodge
Farnham
Surrey GU10 4LH
UK
This project scopes whether Calosoma sycophanta could be reintroduced as a biocontrol agent for OPM in the UK.
The Forest Trapping Network (FTN) is a Great Britain-wide, broad-spectrum surveillance network which monitors for GB priority pest and EU quarantine organisms that other survey methods are unable to detect. The FTN is a rolling programme which will survey 4-6 woodlands withing 100 forests for quarantine pests over five years.
The Forest Trapping Network (FTN) forms a major part of GB’s Future Surveillance Plan (FSP). The FSP is a Great Britain-wide, broad-spectrum strategy to monitor quarantine and priority insect pests of forests included in the Plant Health (Phytosanitary Conditions) (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020. The FSP outlines several survey techniques which target species on the […]
Webb, C. R., Blake, M., & Gilligan, C. A. (2025). Phenology of the spruce bark beetle Ips typographus in the UK under past, current and future climate conditions. Plants, People, Planet, 7(1), 284-300.
Grégoire, J. C., Bonte, J., Bourke, A., Cocos, D., Fielding, N., Gohli, J., Inward, D., Klapwijk, M., Nikolov, C., Økland, B., Schroeder, M., Spaans, F., Vakula, J., Blake, M., De Andrade Moral, R., Destefanis, M., Griffin, C., Kunca, A., Murchie, A., Ryan, C., Smith, A., Evans, H. F. (2024). Territorial expansion of the European Ips species in the 20th century–a review. Entomologia Generalis, 44(6), 1359-1375.
Blake, M., Straw, N., Kendall, T., Whitham, T., Manea, I. A., Inward, D., Jones, B., Hazlitt, N., Ockenden, A., Deol, A., Brown, A., Ransom, E., Smith, L., & Facey, S. (2024). Recent outbreaks of the spruce bark beetle Ips typographus in the UK: Discovery, management, and implications. Trees, Forests and People, 16, 100508.
De Becquevort, S., Mckeown, N. J., Blake, M., & Shaw, P. W. (2024). Genetic variation reveals complex population structuring of Tomicus piniperda L.(Coleoptera, Scolytidae) in the UK: Implications for management of this important pest. Agricultural and Forest Entomology, 26(2), 249-261.
De Becquevort, S., Mckeown, N. J., Blake, M., & Shaw, P. W. (2023). Time series DNA barcoding provides insight into factors influencing wood-boring and bark-feeding insect communities in Scots pine, Sitka spruce, and Noble fir stands. Environmental Entomology, 52(5), 802-813.
Whitham, T., Bowdrey, J., & Blake, M. (2022) Dryomyia lichtensteinii (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae), a holm oak gall midge new to the British Isles. British Journal of Entomological Natural History, 35.
Blake, M., Barclay, M. V., Mendel, H., & Morris, M. G. (2018). Bradybatus kellneri Bach, 1854 (Curculionidae) intercepted in Acer fruits-one to watch out for in Britain. The Coleopterist, 27, 91-94.
Blake, M., McKeown, N. J., Bushell, M. L., & Shaw, P. W. (2016). DNA extraction from spider webs. Conservation Genetics Resources, 8, 219-221.