Agriotes sputator: un nouveau venu au Québec à surveiller
Citation
Saguez J, Singleton K, van Herk W.G., Douglas H.B., Gries R., Gries G. 2022. Agriotes sputator: un nouveau venu au Québec à surveiller. Réunion annuelle de la Société d’Entomologie du Québec. Granby, Qc. 27 octobre 2022. Poster.
Résumé en langage clair
During the course of evaluating sex pheromone components of Agriotes mancus, a native pest click beetle species in eastern Canada, we collected a fairly large number of Agriotes sputator in Quebec. Specifically, we collected 32 and 217 A. sputator males, respectively, in the spring and summer of 2020 and 2021. This is the first record of A. sputator in Quebec, and shows that its range has expanded from eastern Canada to Central North America. This is the first detection of this pest in Canada outside the Maritimes and British Columbia. It is an important pest in both areas. This finding is of interest for several reasons. First, A. sputator is the predominant wireworm pest attacking potato in PEI. In some fields in PEI, trap captures of >100 beetles per day are common. Such high populations of A. sputator cause significant yield loss (20–30%) due to non-marketable tubers and have prompted some growers to discontinue potato production. Once established in other parts of Canada, A. sputator may inflict similar damage to high-value vegetable crops grown there, as well as to cereals and other crops. Second, once established in agricultural areas of Quebec, A. sputator may displace the currently predominant, and less damaging native wireworms. Third, the Europe-native A. sputator and North America-native A. mancus appear to share pheromone molecular components. Captures of multiple Agriotes species in traps baited with synthetic Agriotes pheromone components may potentially facilitate the development of generic pheromone-based monitoring tools, provided that the taxonomic identity of captured beetles is not critical for pest management decisions. Agriotes sputator is the first of three non-native Agriotes pests in North America (A. sputator, A. lineatus, A. obscurus) to arrive in the central lowlands of North America, which are among the world’s largest agricultural growing areas, and poses a substantial threat to crop yields and market values.
Résumé
During the course of evaluating sex pheromone components of Agriotes mancus, a native pest click beetle species in eastern Canada, we collected a fairly large number of Agriotes sputator in Quebec. Specifically, we collected 32 and 217 A. sputator males, respectively, in the spring and summer of 2020 and 2021. This is the first record of A. sputator in Quebec, and shows that its range has expanded from eastern Canada to Central North America. This is the first detection of this pest in Canada outside the Maritimes and British Columbia. It is an important pest in both areas. This finding is of interest for several reasons. First, A. sputator is the predominant wireworm pest attacking potato in PEI. In some fields in PEI, trap captures of >100 beetles per day are common. Such high populations of A. sputator cause significant yield loss (20–30%) due to non-marketable tubers and have prompted some growers to discontinue potato production. Once established in other parts of Canada, A. sputator may inflict similar damage to high-value vegetable crops grown there, as well as to cereals and other crops. Second, once established in agricultural areas of Quebec, A. sputator may displace the currently predominant, and less damaging native wireworms. Third, the Europe-native A. sputator and North America-native A. mancus appear to share pheromone molecular components. Captures of multiple Agriotes species in traps baited with synthetic Agriotes pheromone components may potentially facilitate the development of generic pheromone-based monitoring tools, provided that the taxonomic identity of captured beetles is not critical for pest management decisions. Agriotes sputator is the first of three non-native Agriotes pests in North America (A. sputator, A. lineatus, A. obscurus) to arrive in the central lowlands of North America, which are among the world’s largest agricultural growing areas, and poses a substantial threat to crop yields and market values.