Crop Insects |
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Vegetable beetle |
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Gonocephalum elderi
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Adult vegetable beetle (Gonocephalum elderi)
? Agriculture Western Australia
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Description
Adult beetles do not have a snout, and must not be confused with vegetable weevils, which has a snout and can cause crop damage. Vegetable beetles are oval 8 mm long, and flattened. They are usually a dull grey, but sometimes appear brown or almost black. Often they have soil or sand stuck to their backs. The larvae are brown and worm-like, but have a hard and shiny skin, with three pairs of legs at the front. They live in the soil, and are sometimes known as false wireworms.
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Life cycle
Little is known of their lifecycle, reflecting the fact that they are not pests. Adults probably emerge from the soil in spring, and remain in paddocks till autumn, sheltering most of the time and feeding in decaying organic matter as opportunities arise. The larvae are commonly found in the soil over winter, and probably hatch from eggs laid in autumn. It is likely the change to adult occurs in spring. Adults survive in paddocks well into winter. |
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Damage
Vegetable beetles are not known to damage winter grown broadacre crops, even though they are often found in very large numbers, usually hiding under litter, stones, and clods of earth. Whenever they have been seen chewing on seedlings, close observation has shown that the plant is already wilting or dying, because of damage from other insects or diseases. Vegetable beetle adults and larve feed on decaying organic matter, and are favoured by heavy stubble or large quantities of pasture residues. |
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Control
Control is unnecessary. In experiments to find insecticides for control of other pests, such as vegetable weevil, it has been observed that vegetable beetles are very difficult to kill; they survive high rates of all insecticides tested. |
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