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Plant-Insect Ecosystems

Member Symposium

Clickbait: Click Beetles and Wireworms (Coleoptera: Elateridae) as Inspiration

Catch-all pheromone lure for Agriotes and Limonius pest click beetles in North America

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

2:12 PM – 2:24 PM PT

Location: Vancouver Convention Centre, Meeting Room 204

Presenting Author(s)

EL

Emily Lemke

Master of Pest Management Student
Simon Fraser University
Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada

Co-Author(s)

Wv

Willem G. van Herk

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Agassiz, British Columbia, Canada
Julien Saguez

Researcher - Field Crop Entomologist
CÉROM
Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Québec, Canada
DP

Doug Pepper

Ministry of Agriculture, Duncan
KF

Kathleen Furtado

Simon Fraser University
Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
GG

Gerhard Gries

Professor
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada

Sex pheromone lures are effective tools for monitoring and potentially controlling pest click beetle (Coleoptera: Elateridae) species. To date, such lures are genus-specific (e.g., Limonius spp.) or species-specific. However, if sympatric heterogeners are not repelled by each other’s pheromones, trap lures effective for multiple elaterid genera could potentially be developed, improving cost efficiency in pest management programs. In both western and eastern North America, several species of Agriotes spp. and Limonius spp. co-occur and inflict similar crop damage; We investigated whether sex pheromones of these species can be combined in a single lure without reducing its attractiveness to all target species. We show that in western Canada, the pheromone of Agriotes lineatus and Limonius spp. (limoniic acid) can be combined without significantly reducing captures of male A. lineatus, L. canus, L. californicus and L. infuscatus relative to traps baited only with the pheromones singly. Similarly, the pheromone of A. obscurus and Limonius spp. can be combined without significantly reducing trap captures of male L. canus, L. infuscatus and L. californicus but reduced A. obscurus captures relative to traps baited with the pheromones singly. In eastern Canada, combining pheromones for Agriotes mancus and Limonius spp. reduced captures of A. mancus but not A. pubescens and A. sputator. These data imply that pheromones of select elaterid heterogeners can be combined in a ‘catch-all’ pheromone lure to effectively monitor for, or possibly control, multiple pest elaterid species, but that such blended lures should be evaluated per species combination.