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THE BHP WIRE —
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Explore the people, places, events, achievements, struggles and stories that shaped our journey.
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
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Wilmington, North Carolina once had a thriving Black middle class and an elected interracial government. In 1898 white supremacists used violence to overthrow that government, kill Black residents and drive many others from the city.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
| Japanese beetle | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Clade: | Pancrustacea |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Coleoptera |
| Suborder: | Polyphaga |
| Infraorder: | Scarabaeiformia |
| Family: | Scarabaeidae |
| Genus: | Popillia |
| Species: | P. japonica
|
| Binomial name | |
| Popillia japonica Newman, 1841
| |
The Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica) is a species of scarab beetle. Due to the presence of natural predators, the Japanese beetle is not considered a pest in its native Japan. In North America and some regions of Europe, it is a noted pest to roughly 300 species of plants. Some of these plants include roses, grapes, hops, canna, crape myrtles, birch trees, linden trees, and others.[1]
The adult beetles damage plants by skeletonizing the foliage (i.e., consuming only the material between a leaf's veins), as well as, at times, feeding on a plant's fruit. The subterranean larvae feed on the roots of grasses.
English entomologist Edward Newman described the Japanese beetle in 1841.[2]
Adults of P. japonica measure 15 mm (0.6 in) in length and 10 mm (0.4 in) in width, with iridescent, copper-colored elytra and a green thorax and head. A row of white tufts (spots) of hair projects from under the wing covers on each side of the body.[3] Males are slightly smaller than females. Grubs are white and lie in curled positions. A mature grub is roughly 1 in (2.5 cm) long.[4]
Popillia japonica is native to Japan, and is an invasive species in North America and Europe.
The first written evidence of the insect appearing within the United States was in 1916 in a nursery near Riverton, New Jersey.[5] The beetle larvae are thought to have entered the United States in a shipment of iris bulbs prior to 1912, when inspections of commodities entering the country began. As of 2015, just nine western states of the United States—Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington—were considered free of Japanese beetles.[4] These states are protected by a federal Japanese beetle quarantine (7 CFR 301.48) and the National Plant Board's U.S. Domestic Japanese Beetle Harmonization Plan, which is intended to keep them uninfested.[6] Since then, some of these states have detected localized infestations and begun eradication programs: Oregon began treating a large infestation found near Portland in 2016, cutting beetle numbers by about 92% since 2016,[7] and Washington launched a multi-year eradication effort after beetles were found in the Yakima Valley in 2020.[8] These beetles have been detected in airports on the West Coast of the United States since the 1940s. The infestation grew rapidly, and from late June to September 3, 2021, over 20,000 were found in Grandview, Washington, alone.[9]
The first Japanese beetle found in Canada was inadvertently brought by tourists to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, by ferry from Maine in 1939. During the same year, three additional adults were captured at Yarmouth and three at Lacolle in southern Quebec.[10]
Japanese beetles have been found on the islands of the Azores since the 1970s.[11] In 2014, the first population in mainland Europe was discovered near Milan, Italy.[12][13] In 2017, the pest was detected in nearby Ticino, Switzerland.[14] In 2023, the first population north of the Alps was detected in Kloten near Zürich, Switzerland.[15]
Eggs are laid individually or in small clusters near the soil surface.[16] Within roughly two weeks, the ova hatch, then the larvae feed on fine roots and other organic material. As the larvae mature, they become C-shaped grubs, which consume progressively coarser roots and may do economic damage to pasture and turf.
Larvae hibernate in small cells in the soil, emerging in the spring when soil temperatures rise again.[16] Within 4–6 weeks of breaking hibernation, the larvae pupate. Most of the beetle's life is spent as a larva, with only 30–45 days spent as an imago. Adults feed on leaf material above ground, using pheromones to attract other beetles and overwhelm plants, skeletonizing leaves from the top of the plant downward. The aggregation of beetles alternates daily between mating, feeding, and ovipositing. An adult female may lay as many as 40–60 ova in her lifetime.[16]
Throughout the majority of the Japanese beetle's range, its lifecycle takes one full year, but in the extreme northern parts of its range, as well as high-altitude zones as found in its native Japan, development may take two years.[17]
Phenological models might be useful in predicting the timing of the presence of larvae or adults of the Japanese beetle. Model outputs can be used to support the timely implementation of monitoring and control actions against the pest, thus reducing its potential impact.[18][19]
Owing to their destructive nature, traps have been invented specifically to target Japanese beetles. These comprise a pair of crossed walls with a bag or plastic container underneath and are baited with floral scent, pheromone, or both. However, studies conducted at the University of Kentucky and Eastern Illinois University suggest beetles attracted to traps frequently do not end up in the traps; instead, they land on plants in the vicinity and cause more damage along the flight path and near the trap than may have occurred if the trap were not present.[20][21]
During the larval stage, the Japanese beetle lives in lawns and other grasslands, where it eats the roots of grasses. During that stage, it is susceptible to a fatal disease called milky spore disease, caused by a bacterium called milky spore, Paenibacillus (formerly Bacillus) popilliae. The USDA developed this biological control, and it is commercially available in powder form for application to lawn areas. Standard applications (low density across a broad area) take from two to four years to establish maximal protection against larval survival, expanding through the soil through repeated rounds of infection. Control programs based on milky spore disease have been found to work most efficiently when applied as large-scale treatment programs, rather than by isolated landowners. Bacillus thuringiensis is also used to control Japanese beetle populations in the same manner.[4]
On field crops such as squash, floating row covers can be used to exclude the beetles, but this may necessitate hand pollination of the flowers. Kaolin sprays can also be used as barriers and have been shown to be as effective as standard pesticides programs.[22]
Research performed by many US extension service branches has shown that pheromone traps attract more beetles than they catch; under favorable conditions, only up to three-quarters of the insects attracted to a trap are captured by it.[4][23] Traps are most effective when spread out over an entire community and downwind and at the borders (i.e., as far away as possible, particularly upwind) of managed property containing plants being protected.
When present in small numbers, the beetles may be manually controlled using a soap-water spray mixture, shaking a plant in the morning hours and disposing of the fallen beetles,[23] or simply picking them off attractions such as rose flowers, since the presence of beetles attracts more beetles to that plant.[24]
Several insect predators and parasitoids have been introduced to the United States for biocontrol. Two of them, the fly Istocheta aldrichi, a parasite of adult beetles, and the solitary wasp Tiphia vernalis, a parasite of larvae, are well established with significant but variable rates of parasitism. T. vernalis reproduces by locating beetle grubs through digging, and on finding one, paralyzing it with a sting and laying an egg on it; on hatching, the wasp larva consumes the grub. I. aldrichi, instead, seeks out adult female beetles and lays eggs on their thoraces, allowing its larvae to burrow into the insect's body and kill it in this manner. A female I. aldrichi can lay up to 100 eggs over two weeks, and the rapidity with which its larvae kill their hosts allows the use of these flies to suppress beetle populations before they can themselves reproduce.[4][25][26]
Soil-dwelling entomopathogenic nematodes are known to seek out and prey on Japanese beetle grubs during the subterranean portion of their lifecycle by entering larvae and reproducing within their bodies. Varieties that have seen commercial use as pest-control agents include Steinernema glaseri and Heterorhabditis bacteriophora.[4]
Recent studies have begun to explore a microsporidian pathogen, Ovavesicula popilliae, as a form of biocontrol against Japanese beetles.[27] Initially discovered in 1987, O. popilliae has been observed inhabiting the malpighian tubules of third-instar larvae.[28] This leads to swelling, inefficiency in the gut, and potentially cause microsporidiosis in the infected beetles. This infection weakens the beetle and creates a suitable breeding ground for opportunistic pathogens.[27]
While the larvae of Japanese beetles feed on the roots of many genera of grasses, the adults consume the leaves of a much wider range of hosts, including these common crops:[10] bean, cannabis, strawberry, tomato, pepper, grape, hop, rose, cherry, plum, pear, peach, raspberry, blackberry, corn, pea, okra, and blueberry.[citation needed]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
The Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica) is a species of scarab beetle. Due to the presence of natural predators, the Japanese beetle is not considered a pest in its native Japan. In North America and some regions of Europe, it is a noted pest to roughly 300 species of plants. Some of these plants include roses, grapes, hops, canna, crape myrtles, birch trees, linden trees, and others. The adult beetles damage plants by skeletonizing the foliage (i.e., consuming only the material between a leaf's veins), as well as, at times, feeding on a plant's fruit. The subterranean larvae feed on the roots of grasses.
The Japanese rhinoceros beetle (Trypoxylus dichotomus), also known as the Japanese rhino beetle, the Japanese horned beetle, or by its Japanese name kabutomushi (兜虫, 甲虫 or カブトムシ), is a species of rhinoceros beetle. They are commonly found in continental Asia in countries such as China, the Korean peninsula, Japan, Vietnam, Burma, Thailand, and Taiwan. In these areas, this species of beetle is often found in broad-leaved forests with tropical or sub-tropical climates. This beetle is well known for the prominent cephalic horn found on males. Male Japanese rhinoceros beetles will use this horn to fight other males for territory and access to female mating partners. Upon contact, males will attempt to flip each other onto their backs or off of their feeding tree. In response to selective pressures, smaller male T. dichotomus have adapted a "sneak-like behavior". These smaller beetles will attempt to avoid physical confrontation with larger males and try to mate with females.
The figeater beetle (also green fruit beetle or fig beetle, Cotinis mutabilis) is a member of the scarab beetle family in the subfamily Cetoniinae, comprising a group of beetles commonly called flower chafers, since many of them feed on pollen, nectar, or petals. Its habitat covers primarily the southwestern United States (including California) and Mexico, extending south to northern South America. Within the figeater beetle's cuticle, twisted fibers are arranged in stacked layers. When light hits those layers, it bends and creates a distinct iridescent color. Figeater beetles are often mistaken for green June beetles (Cotinis nitida) and occasionally Japanese beetles (Popillia japonica), which occur in the Eastern US. C. mutabilis are also named by the synonym C. texana.
Anomala orientalis (synonym Exomala orientalis), also known as the oriental beetle (OB), is a species of Rutelinae (shining leaf chafers) in the family Scarabaeidae. It is a beetle about 0.7 - 1.1 cm (0.3 - 0.4 inches) long, with mottled, metallic brown- and black-colored elytra and a similarly colored thorax and head during the adult stage. It is sometimes confused with the larger and more colorful Japanese beetle. During the larval stage, the oriental beetle can be identified by the parallel line raster pattern. This species is native to Asia where it was first found in Japan in 1875. Over time, A. orientalis was spread to other parts of Asia, including Korea, and has since spread to the United States. It was first found in Hawaii and further spread to Northeast states (such as Connecticut, Maine, and New York) as well as some southern states (North Carolina). Oriental beetles are notorious for their role as pests on plants ranging from sugarcane and other crops (such as maize and pineapple). As larvae, these beetles burrow into the ground as they move throughout fields and chew through plant roots. Their infestation proves to be a current problem that pesticides are aiming to target. Notably, these beetles have a short mating season that consists of 2 months (mid-June to mid-August) and normally reside beneath the soil burrowed deeply. During mating season, the female will exit the ground and begin emitting a sex pheromone that lures males to her. The molecule serves as a tool for males to locate the female. After copulation, the female returns back into the ground to deposit her eggs. This is where the larvae will mature and begin feeding on plant roots (its pest behavior).
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Joe Louis.
