Cereal leaf beetle (Oulema melanopus)

Abstract

The cereal leaf beetle (Oulema melanopus L.), native to Eurasia and introduced to North America, poses significant economic threat to crops of small grains across much of the northern hemisphere. Pest management is challenging because cereal leaf beetle outbreaks are sporadic and remain unpredictable. Recent research advances in understanding and controlling this pest in wheat and other small grains, particularly as published over the past decade, are reviewed here. These advances address factors that affect its ecology and severity (especially as influencing its spatial distribution, both locally and regionally); issues of implementation and promotion of biological control (classical, conservation, and augmentative); aspects of plant-insect interactions (including induced plant responses, and endophytes), as related to host plant resistance; and management tools (including economic thresholds, degree-day modeling and insecticide application). These advances highlight many promising ways forward for further development of IPM to minimize economic threat from cereal leaf beetle.