. Cooperative economic insect report. Beneficial insects; Insect pests. - 422 - Life History and Habits: Pruinose scarab has a one-year life cycle. The adults fly and oviposit during the summer. There are 3 larval instars; of these, the first two are short and the final instar is commonly entered in early autumn. The latter is the overwintering state. Towards the end of the winter an immobile prepupal stage occurs, followed by pupation in the spring or early summer. Flights of adults begin at dusk and continue for one-half to one hoiir. The flight season varies according to the area; they prob
. Cooperative economic insect report. Beneficial insects; Insect pests. - 422 - Life History and Habits: Pruinose scarab has a one-year life cycle. The adults fly and oviposit during the summer. There are 3 larval instars; of these, the first two are short and the final instar is commonly entered in early autumn. The latter is the overwintering state. Towards the end of the winter an immobile prepupal stage occurs, followed by pupation in the spring or early summer. Flights of adults begin at dusk and continue for one-half to one hoiir. The flight season varies according to the area; they probably occur in late October or early November in southern Queensland, in late November and early December at Leura in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales and from early to mid-January at Canberra. The adults feed on leaves of trees or shrubs at night, spending daylight hours under fallen bark or leaf litter. Gravid females burrow among or just below roots of turf and lay 20-40 eggs. The third-instar larvae feed on roots of grasses in March or April, completely severing the roots from the plants at times. Infestations are usually detected at this time. The turf dies off in irregular patches within a few days. Severely infested turf has a pronounced sponginess when walked on and may be picked up and rolled back carpetwise to expose a resting stage. They pupate in cells about an inch or so below the feeding level. The newly emerged adults remain in their pupal cells until shortly before emergence flight. Description: ADULT - Head and pronotum reddish-brown, with purplish-green iridescence, particularly on the pronotum. Elytra brownish-yellow; between the rows of punctures there are four broad smooth intervals. The surface has characteristic dull sheen, or bloom from which the insect takes it trivial name. LARVA - Certain characters of the raster (shown below) and antennae distinguish the species from several closely related species. The raster bears palidia, consisting of two row
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, booksubjectbeneficialinsects, booksubjectinsect
