Agriotes sputator

Scientific Name: Agriotes sputator
Type of pest: Arepolyphagous pest
Order: — Coleoptera
Family: — Elateridae
 
Beetle is widespread in Ukraine everywhere.
Larvae damage cereal crops, potato tubers, root crops of beets and carrots, seeds and seedlings.
Beetle size 6 - 8.5 mm, dark brown, sometimes light brown, with a gray pubescence.
Front end is elongated, darker than the upper layer, its length slightly exceeds the width, the ends of the anterolaryngeal, ear buds and legs are brownish-yellow; the anterior chest from the bottom have a narrow growth that enters the deepening of the middle chest; Such pass allows the beetle that has been thrown onto the back, curving the body, bouncing upwards and standing on the legs with a characteristic sound.
Egg size 0.5 mm, wide, white, smooth.
The larva of the last age is 18.5 mm in color from yellow to dark yellow. Throughout the life of the rocks 8 times.
Winter bugs in the soil, at a depth of 100 cm, larvae of different ages - at a depth of 50 - 80 cm.
In the forest-steppe zone of Ukraine, beetles appear on the surface of the soil in the first half of May and occur until mid-June.
Full summer and egg laying occurs in late May.
They are eaten by a pollen of flowers, rarely of leaves of cereals.
The female lays eggs in the soil near the roots of cereal plants; maximum fertility reaches 100-120 eggs.
The larvae, which are reborn at the end of May - in early June, feed on the roots of cereals, damaging the seeds, planting sites, underground stems and tubers. Complete development ends in four years. Having completed the development, the larva is spreading in July - August. Beetles are formed in puppet cubs in late August.
Methods of struggle: the destruction of perennial storm, seed drilling with insecticide analysts.