Salix babylonica grown weeping willow cultivar is "Salix × sepulcralis" 'Chrysocoma', with bright yellowish branchlets. Peking willow is a popular ornamental tree in northern China, and is also grown for wood production and shelterbelts there, being particularly important around the oases of the Gobi Desert, protecting agricultural land from desert winds. The epithet "babylonica" in this Chinese species' scientific name "(S. babylonica)," as well as the related common names "Babylon willow" or "Babylon weeping willow", derive from a misunderstanding by Linnaeus that this willow was the tree described in the "Bible" in the opening of Psalm 137 (here in Latin and English
Spathius agrili only attracted to select species of "Fraxinus" and to "Salix babylonica". In natural settings, "S. agrili" will be unlikely to encounter and parasitize non-target larvae as it does not search other tree species. This, in addition to other tests of host specificity, led to approval of the wasp for controlled releases in specific study sites in the United States for further research. Spathius agrili Spathius agrili is a parasitic non-stinging wasp of family Braconidae which is native to North Asia. It is a parasitoid of the emerald ash borer ("Agrilus planipennis" Fairmaire), an invasive species which has destroyed tens of