README file

Data Set Title

Database of Palm Damage Caused by Paysandisia archon

Data Set Author/s

Laura Zavatta (Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences – DISTAL,
Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna) ORCID: 0000-0002-4200-6043; 
Marco Ticchi (Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences – DISTAL, Alma Mater Studiorum –Università di Bologna); 
Giovanni Burgio (Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences – DISTAL, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna)ORCID: 0000-0001-7506-7283

Data Set Contributor/s

Data Set Contact Person/s

Laura Zavatta (Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences – DISTAL,
Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna); e-mail: laura.zavatta4@unibo.it

Data Set License CC-BY 4.0

Publication Year 2026

Data set Contents

The dataset consists of:

-   1 tabular dataset saved in Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) format named: 
    "Palm_damage_data.xlsx"

-   1 README file README.md named: "Palm_damage_README.md"

Data set Documentation

Abstract

This dataset contains field observations collected from ornamental palms
surveyed in the urban area of Pesaro (Marche Region, Italy) between
August and October 2024 to assess damage caused by the invasive palm
borer Paysandisia archon (Burmeister, 1880). The dataset includes
records for 96 palm individuals belonging to three host species
(Chamaerops humilis, Phoenix canariensis, and Trachycarpus fortunei)
across 60 sampling sites. Variables include palm species, treatment
status, presence or absence of infestation symptoms, damage category,
damage severity class (0–3)The dataset supports analyses of infestation patterns, host susceptibility and treatment effectiveness.

Content of the files

Palm_damage_data.xlsx contains field survey data collected from
ornamental palms inspected in Pesaro (Italy) during summer–autumn 2024.
Each record corresponds to one surveyed palm and includes information on
palm species, treatment status, infestation symptoms, damage category,
damage severity.

Methodologies

Data were collected through visual inspections of ornamental palms.
Damage severity was assessed using a standardized visual classification
system based on externally visible symptoms and assigned to one of four
classes (0–3). The dataset was used for statistical analyses and spatial
interpolation (Inverse Distance Weighting, IDW) described in the
associated publication.

File specifics

The dataset is provided in Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) format.

Notes
Field surveys carried out in the urban area of Pesaro (Marche Region,
Italy) between August and October 2024.


List of variables

-   Site ID: Sampling site identifier
-   Palm species: Palm species surveyed
-   Treatment status: Treated or untreated during 2024
-   Symptoms: Presence/absence of visible infestation symptoms
-   Damage category: Qualitative damage assessment
-   Damage severity: Damage class (0–3)