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Dusky Wireworm Beetle
Agriotes obscurus L.
45.7871, 15.9598
Field Notes
Description:
Beetle is dark-brown and dull, 7-10 mm long and 2 mm wide. Body of the beetle is fairly convex; elytra are covered with yellow-gray hairs. Pronotum is wider than long. Beetles fly from May to August in forest zone and from April to the end of June in steppe zone. They reproduce after additional feeding by parenchyma of cereal leaves. Females lay eggs on radical parts of plants or into soil on a depth to 5 cm, placing them by groups of 3 -18 eggs in each one. All the preimaginal stages develop in soil. The larvae develop during 4 - 5 years in forest zone and 3 years in steppe zone. During this period, they molt 8 - 11 times, wintering to a depth of 20-50 cm. Adult larvae pupate in Jul - Aug. Young imagoes emerge in July-August and stay wintering in soil to a depth of 10 - 25 cm.
Habitat:
It is a widespread Eastern-Palearctic species. Its area spreads all over the forest, steppe-forest, and steppe zones of Eurasia from Atlantic to Pacific Ocean, including the Northern Caucasus, Northern Kazakhstan, and Northern Mongolia. The beetle is most numerous and harmful in Europe in the zone of predominance of coniferous forests and podzolic soils of the northern type, and also in forest-steppe districts of Siberia. The pest has been introduced to Northern America.
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