THE COMPOSITION OF WIREWORM SPECIES IN MONTANA WHEAT AND BARLEY FIELDS AND ITS EFFECT ON DEVELOPING IPM PROGRAMS by Anuar Morales-Rodriguez A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Plant Science Montana State University Bozeman, MT August, 2014 ©COPYRIGHT by Anuar Morales – Rodriguez 2014 All Rights Reserved ii DEDICATION I dedicate this work to the engine of my life, Arcacely, Isabella, Nathalia and Carolina, my family. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped me throughout the entire process of my research from the beginning to its completion. First of all, thank you to my advisor, Dr. Kevin W. Wanner, for his invaluable guidance, advice, and support. To my committee members, Drs Michael A. Ivie, David K. Weaver and Robert K. D. Peterson, thank you for all your advice. A huge thank you to our Wanner’s laboratory team who helped me so much including Aracely Ospina – Lopez, Peggy Bunger, and Ruth O’Neill, and our summer helpers Emily Rohwer, Hannah Johnson, Alix Bold, Branden Brelsford, Ammiel Branson, Meghan McGauley, Laura Morales and Diana Florian. Thank you to the superintendents David Wichman, CARC at Moccasin, MT, Grant D. Jackson and Gadi V.P. Reddy, WTARC at Conrad and Dave Gettel, Post Farm at Bozeman for allowing us to collect and conduct wireworm research at their facilities. Also I want to thank John Miller for his invaluable help seeding and harvesting all the different field trials. Thank you to all the helpful people of the Department of Plant Science and Plant Pathology Jim Berg, Ron Ramsfield, Jeff Johnston for all their help in different aspects of my work. A special thank you for all the help and support to Irene Decker, Tamara Parnell and Jill Scarson. Finally, thank you to all my friends and colleagues at Montana State University for making my stay here a memorable. iv VITA Anuar Morales Rodríguez was born in Bogotá, D.C., Colombia on January 8, 1966. He is the eldest of three siblings. After graduation in 1985 from the Instituto Nacional de Educación Media Diversificada, INEM Santiago Pérez El Tunal-Bogotá, he attended the Universidad Distrital “Francisco José de Caldas” in Bogotá, and received his B.S. in Biology with a major in Education in 1995. His undergraduate thesis was titled “Biological control of the coffee berry borer Hypothenemus hampei Ferrari (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) with different propagules of the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana (Balsamo) Vuill.” Before and after his graduation from the university, he worked with different agrochemical companies in Colombia until 1995. From 1995 to 2004, he worked at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Colombia in the beans, forage and IPM entomology programs. From 2000 to 2001, he attended the Universidad del Valle in Cali, Colombia to obtain a “Specialization in Entomology.” He moved to the United States in 2004 as a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Entomology at the New York State Agricultural Experimental Station (NYSAES) of Cornell University in Geneva, NY. In 2006, he was accepted into the graduate program (M.S.) in the Field of Entomology at Cornell University, and conducted his work at the NYSAES. His master thesis was titled “Variation in the Susceptibility of Turf-infesting White Grubs to Different Control Agents and Opportunities for Synergistic Combinations of Biologicals and Neonicotinoids.” In January of 2009, he graduates from his Master in Entomology. In the same year, he was accepted into the graduate program (Ph.D.) in Plant Science and Plant Pathology Department at Montana State University in Bozeman, MT. v TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................1 2. A BRIEF REVIEW OF THE WIREWORM IN NORTH AMERICA ...........................3 Wireworm Distribution ...................................................................................................5 Wireworm as a Pest of Field Crops .................................................................................7 Life History .....................................................................................................................8 Taxonomy ......................................................................................................................12 Sampling ........................................................................................................................13 Larvae ....................................................................................................................13 Adults .....................................................................................................................16 Management ..................................................................................................................18 Conventional ..........................................................................................................18 Cultural ..................................................................................................................20 Trap Crops .................................................................................................21 Physical Barriers ........................................................................................21 Light Traps .................................................................................................21 Biological ...............................................................................................................21 Common Species in Montana Wheat and Barley Fields ...............................................22 Limonius californicus (Mannerheim 1843). ..........................................................22 Limonius infuscatus Motschulsky 1859. ................................................................23 Limonius canus LeCount 1853. .............................................................................23 Hypnoidus bicolor (Eschscholtz 1829). .................................................................24 Aeolus mellillus (Saylor 1836). ..............................................................................24 Selatosomus aeripennis (Kirby 1837). ...................................................................25 References .....................................................................................................................33 References Cited in the Table 1 ....................................................................................43 3. AN EVALUATION OF FOUR DIFFERENT BAIT TRAPS FOR SAMPLING WIREWORMS (COLEOPTERA: ELATERIDAE) INFESTING CEREAL CROPS IN MONTANA .........................................................49 Contribution of Authors and Co-Authors ......................................................................49 Manuscript Information Page ........................................................................................50 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS - CONTINUED Abstract ........................................................................................................................51 Introduction ..................................................................................................................52 Materials and Methods .................................................................................................55 Insect Sampling ................................................................................................55 Data Analysis ...................................................................................................57 Results ..........................................................................................................................57 Total Caches.....................................................................................................57 Bozeman ..............................................................................................58 Conrad ..................................................................................................60 Denton ..................................................................................................61 Toston ..................................................................................................62 Relative Variation ............................................................................................63 Species Diversity .............................................................................................64 Discussion ....................................................................................................................65 Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................72 References ....................................................................................................................86 4. DESCRIPTION OF THE LARVAL ACTIVITY OF THREE SPECIES OF WIREWORMS IN THREE COMMERCIAL CEREAL FIELDS IN MONTANA .............................................................................90 Introduction ..................................................................................................................90 Methodology ................................................................................................................92 Data Analysis ...............................................................................................................92 Results ..........................................................................................................................93