Spotted cucumber beetle

Spotted cucumber beetle
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Family: Chrysomelidae
Genus: Diabrotica
Species: D. undecimpunctata
Binomial name
Diabrotica undecimpunctata
Spotted cucumber beetle

The spotted cucumber beetle (Diabrotica undecimpunctata) is a cucumber beetle native to North America. The beetle is also a major agricultural pest insect of North America.

In the adult form, it eats and damages leaves of many crops, including cucumbers, soybeans, cotton, beans, and many others. In the larval form, which is known as the southern corn rootworm, it tunnels through the roots of young plants, stunting or killing them. These native pests have a wide range of host plants, but will readily infest a field of crop plants, most notoriously corn.

Adult beetles are greenish-yellow with six large black spots on each elytron. They are about 0.5 cm long. The larvae are yellowish and wormlike.[1]

The spotted cucumber beetle has three subspecies, each with a different common name;

  • D. u. howardi – spotted cucumber beetle (southern corn rootworm)
  • D. u. tenella – western cucumber beetle
  • D. u. undecimpunctata – western spotted cucumber beetle

Distribution

This beetle is found throughout southern Canada, continental USA, and the central highlands of Mexico.[2]

References

  1. ↑ "Spotted Cucumber Beetle? - Diabrotica undecimpunctata". bugguide.net.
  2. ↑ "Diabrotica undecimpunctata" (PDF). Data Sheets on Quarantine Pests. European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization. Retrieved 2012-06-20.
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