Damage of tuberous and root crops by soil-inhabiting insects in the North-West of Russia

The comparative preference of tubers and root crops of different species and varieties of food and other crops for wireworms – larvae of click beetles (Coleoptera, Elateridae) and caterpillars of biting moths (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae) was studied. Studies were conducted in 2022-2024 on the fields of FGBNU VIZR in Pushkin, Tosnensky and Gatchinsky districts of the Leningrad Region. The experimental plots were annually planted with 40-50 potato varieties, 4-6 samples of table beets, carrots and dahlias each; the plot in Tosnensky district was located near a perennial array of Jerusalem artichoke. Food preferences of pests were compared according to 3 indices of damage to underground plant organs, the main of which was the percentage of damaged tubers or rootlets in the harvested crop. The dependence of the degree of infestation of the field by wireworms and moth caterpillars mainly on the abundance and species composition of weed and flowering meadow vegetation in and around the crop, as this determines the attractiveness of the site for additional feeding of adult insects and egg-laying by them. According to average indices of damage of different crops, potato tubers are the most preferred for feeding of wireworms (on average from 18 to 43 % of damaged tubers), then tubers of topinambur (12 - 23 %), table beet roots (4 – 13 %) and dahlia tubers (4 – 9 %). For moth caterpillars in V-VI ages, no significant differences in their preference for one or another crop were revealed. However, damage of underground organs of any crop by wireworms and moth caterpillars differs many times in different varieties and forms at any level of pest abundance. Damage of carrot root crops by pests of both groups was not observed. Based on the results of the evaluation in 2022-2024. 24 previously unstudied potato varieties, 7 new varieties, poorly damaged by wireworms or moth caterpillars, were identified, of which 3 varieties (Ariel, Belmonda and Competitor) have group resistance to the named pests.

проволочники, гусеницы, клубни, корнеплоды, культура, сорт, повреждаемость, устойчивость к вредителям