Striped cucumber beetle
Acalymma vittatum, the striped cucumber beetle, is a beetle of the family Chrysomelidae and a serious pest of cucurbit crops in both larval and adult stages. It is distributed from eastern North America to the Rocky Mountains. It is replaced in the west by Acalymma trivittatum, a duller species often with greyish or pale white elytra rather than yellow.
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TerrestrialTerrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land (e.g., cats, ants, snails), as compared with aquatic animals, which liv...
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OviparousOviparous animals are female animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive...
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starts withThe striped cucumber beetle is a small beetle approximately half a centimeter (1/5 inch) in length, and characterized by brown-yellow elytra completely covering the abdomen and longitudinally transversed by three thick black stripes. It superficially resembles the western corn rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera), another serious crop pest. However, the ventral abdominal surface of A. vittatum is black where that of D. virgifera are yellow, and the elytra of D. virgifera often do not extend the full length of the abdomen.
Large numbers of adults emerge from diapause in the spring to feed on the foliage, flowers, and pollen of cucurbit species. One or two generations of beetles can pass in a season depending on the region, with the final generation settling into another period of diapause to wait out the winter.
Females will lay eggs on or in the immediate vicinity of the stem of a viable host plant, often a member of the genus Cucurbita. Eggs are a bright orange color and less than a millimeter in diameter. Eggs hatch after a short period and larvae feed on the roots of the plant.
