WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) — An invasive beetle that’s native to Japan has been discovered in Indiana for the first time as the plant-munching insect edges further into the Midwest.

Purdue University entomologist Doug Richmond said a graduate student recently found an unusual beetle in Tippecanoe County and identified it at a Purdue lab as an Oriental beetle.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture later confirmed that the insect found in the Lafayette area was an Oriental beetle, Richmond said.

The beetles, which are similar in size to Japanese beetle, arrived in the United States in the 1920s and have caused devastating infestations across much of the Northeast.

To date, the insect has been found as far south as South Carolina. Until its discovery in Indiana, the furthest west the species had been found was Ohio.

Richmond said workers with the Purdue Plant and Pest Diagnostic Laboratory will set traps next summer in Tippecanoe County to gauge the extent of the beetle’s populations in the area.

“We will be out setting traps and trying to gauge whether the Tippecanoe County find was an isolated one or whether we have a larger infestation,” he said.

In the larval stage, the beetles feed on roots of turf grasses, perennial plants, weeds, nursery stock and potted plants. After the adult beetles emerge, they feed on flowers from May to August, favoring the petals of daisies, phlox and petunias.

On its own, the beetle will only spread a few miles annually, but it can spread quickly through the transportation of sod and nursery stock.

http://extension.entm.purdue.edu/CAPS/pestInfo/orientalBtl.htm

Posted 10/17/2007