Agriotes oregonensis (Coleoptera: Elateridae) in Canada

The larvae of Agriotes spp. click beetles (Coleoptera: Elateridae) are among the most important pests of cereals, potatoes, and other agricultural crops in Europe and Canada, damaging germinating seeds and seedlings in the spring and belowground vegetables (e.g., potato tubers, carrots) in the fall...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the Entomological Society of British Columbia 2022-12, Vol.119, p.9-14
Main Authors: van Herk, W G, Douglas, H B, Vernon, R S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural economics
Agricultural land
Agricultural research
Agriotes
Body size
Carrots
Cereals
Coleoptera
Costs
Crop damage
Crops
Damage
Economic impact
Elateridae
Entomology
Insects
Lakes
Larvae
Native species
Pest control
Pests
Pheromones
Pitfall traps
Plant protection
Potatoes
R&D
Research & development
Seedlings
Seeds
Sex pheromone
Vegetables
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Description
Summary:The larvae of Agriotes spp. click beetles (Coleoptera: Elateridae) are among the most important pests of cereals, potatoes, and other agricultural crops in Europe and Canada, damaging germinating seeds and seedlings in the spring and belowground vegetables (e.g., potato tubers, carrots) in the fall (Ritter and Richter 2014; Traugott et al. 2015; Vernon and van Herk 2022). The economic costs of these pests to crops in Canada is difficult to assess, but in Prince Edward Island, the combined cost of annual potato crop damage due to A. sputator (Linnaeus, 1758) and associated costs for control are currently estimated at $CAD 10 million (Singleton et al. 2023). Vemon Pitfall Traps® (van Herk et al. 2018) baited with lures containing either the sex pheromone for A. obscurus (60 gL, 1:1 geranyl hexanoate:geranyl octanoate) or for A. lineatus (40 gL, 1:1 geranyl butanoate:geranyl octanoate; cSALoMoN® Plant Protection institute, centre for Agricultural Research, Budapest, Hungary) were deployed on agricultural land at 42 sites (150 trap pairs, with 1-9 pairs per site) throughout lowland agricultural areas in southern ВС from mid-May to late July in 2017, 2018, and 2019 (Figure 2; see van Herk et al. 2021a for a complete list of sampling locations). of these, traps placed in the northern Okanagan Valley (approximately between Okanagan Lake and Shuswap Lake) in 2019 collected a total of 76 A. oregonensis: 24 in Armstrong (50.4297, -119.1911), three in Coldstream (two at 50.2203, -119.1818 and one at 50.2234, -119.1189), 48 in Enderby (35 at 50.5180, -119.1394, eight at 50.5401, -119.1362, and five at 50.5313, -119.1167), and one in Salmon Arm (50.6801, - 119.2479). According to Becker (1956), A. oregonensis is "usually" confused with the agricultural pest species A. sparsus because the two species have overlapping distributions and are similar in size (6-8 mm) and body shape (slender, elongate; Figure 1).
ISSN:0071-0733
1929-7890