Cereal leaf beetle overwinters as an adult and the larval stages can cause economic losses owing to feeding damage on the leaves of cereals although the species has a broad host plant range (i.e., includes oats, wheat, barley, rye, corn but also wild oats, quackgrass, timothy, canary grass, reed canary grass, annual and perennial ryegrass, foxtail, orchard grass, wild rye, smooth brome and fescues). There is one generation per year.
Extensive Cereal leaf beetle information for the Canadian prairies is posted and updated on the Prairie Pest Monitoring Network's Blog (click to link to an example including biology and monitoring tips).
Cereal leaf beetle is attacked by an effective biological control agent, Tetrastichus julis, which is a small wasp that selectively seeks out and parasitizes the larval stages of its host. Dr. Hector Carcamo (AAFC-Lethbridge) recently prepared a description of T. julis and its impact on cereal leaf beetle in Canada. A screen shot is below for reference or hyperlink to the document.
During the growing season, be sure to check out the Prairie Pest Monitoring Network's Blog for the Weekly Updates. Bioclimatic modelling is used, together with current environmental data from across the prairies, to predict the occurrence of the various developmental stages of Cereal leaf beetle larvae to aid scouting efforts. Because the weather changes, the bioclimatic model outputs are updated weekly through the growing season and particularly in the spring. Additionally, bioclimatic modelling is used to help predict when the biological control agent, T. julis, will be active and to help predict its development within its host (cereal leaf beetle larvae) through the growing season.
