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Miscanthus Feeding Insects and Nematodes
8.3 Plant Feeding Insects with Chewing Mouth Parts
8.3.1 Generalist Coleoptera
May beetle (Melolontha melolontha L.) and June beetle (Amphimallon solstitialis
L.) (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) are the most destructive pests of turf grasses
and cause economic threat as polyphagous pest of many fields, horticulture and orchard crops, including Poaceae (Gramineae) monocot crops which
Miscanthus plants belong to.
8.3.1.1 Identification
Adults of May beetle are stocky insects that vary in color: shade of brown
and tan to dark chocolate with length of 22–30 mm. The larvae (grubs) – fat,
C-shaped whitish yellow grubs with brown heads in length of 40–45 mm in
final instar.
8.3.1.2 Life Cycle
May beetles develop for 3–5 years. It hibernates in the stage of grubs and
adults. Grubs live in the soil feeding on plant roots for several years. For
pupating they move deeper in the soil, later emerging from the ground as
adults in the spring.
8.3.1.3 Damage
Adult beetles eat up leaves and flowers, preferring trees. Grubs feed on dead
organic matter and plant roots, resulting in visible water stress and ultimately ending in the death of the plant. The larval stages of these beetles are
more harmful to crops.
M. melolontha was the dominant species observed (Stefanovska et al., 2017b)
in two out of three regions in a field survey of M. × giganteus growing in
Ukraine (Figure 8.2). The reduction of M. × giganteus seedlings at first year of
vegetation due to feeding grubs on roots was observed in a field infected by
M. melolontha L. and A. solstitialis L. in population density – 7.2 grubs m −2 . The
second and third grub instar causes the biggest damage. Preplanting treatment of rhizomes by insecticides had positive effect on seedling emergence,
survival, and further plant height (Sabluk et al., 2014).
8.3.2 Generalist Lepidoptera
Fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda Smith (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is one
of the important polyphagous pests distributed in Brazil, Argentina, USA
(Clark et al., 2007; Montezano et al., 2018), and Africa (De Groote et al., 2020).
Miscanthus Feeding Insects and Nematodes
8.3 Plant Feeding Insects with Chewing Mouth Parts
8.3.1 Generalist Coleoptera
May beetle (Melolontha melolontha L.) and June beetle (Amphimallon solstitialis
L.) (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) are the most destructive pests of turf grasses
and cause economic threat as polyphagous pest of many fields, horticulture and orchard crops, including Poaceae (Gramineae) monocot crops which
Miscanthus plants belong to.
8.3.1.1 Identification
Adults of May beetle are stocky insects that vary in color: shade of brown
and tan to dark chocolate with length of 22–30 mm. The larvae (grubs) – fat,
C-shaped whitish yellow grubs with brown heads in length of 40–45 mm in
final instar.
8.3.1.2 Life Cycle
May beetles develop for 3–5 years. It hibernates in the stage of grubs and
adults. Grubs live in the soil feeding on plant roots for several years. For
pupating they move deeper in the soil, later emerging from the ground as
adults in the spring.
8.3.1.3 Damage
Adult beetles eat up leaves and flowers, preferring trees. Grubs feed on dead
organic matter and plant roots, resulting in visible water stress and ultimately ending in the death of the plant. The larval stages of these beetles are
more harmful to crops.
M. melolontha was the dominant species observed (Stefanovska et al., 2017b)
in two out of three regions in a field survey of M. × giganteus growing in
Ukraine (Figure 8.2). The reduction of M. × giganteus seedlings at first year of
vegetation due to feeding grubs on roots was observed in a field infected by
M. melolontha L. and A. solstitialis L. in population density – 7.2 grubs m −2 . The
second and third grub instar causes the biggest damage. Preplanting treatment of rhizomes by insecticides had positive effect on seedling emergence,
survival, and further plant height (Sabluk et al., 2014).
8.3.2 Generalist Lepidoptera
Fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda Smith (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is one
of the important polyphagous pests distributed in Brazil, Argentina, USA
(Clark et al., 2007; Montezano et al., 2018), and Africa (De Groote et al., 2020).