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Concept
Japanese beetle
Summary
The Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica) is a species of scarab beetle. The adult measures in length and in width, has iridescent copper-colored elytra, and a green thorax and head. It is not very destructive in Japan (where it is controlled by natural predators), but in North America and some regions of Europe, it is a noted pest to roughly 300 species of plants, including rose bushes, grapes, hops, canna, crape myrtles, birch trees, linden trees, and others.
The adult beetles damage plants by skeletonizing the foliage (i.e., consuming only the material between a leaf's veins) as well as, at times, feeding on a plant's fruit. The subterranean larvae feed on the roots of grasses.
English entomologist Edward Newman described the Japanese beetle in 1841.
Adult P. japonica measure in length and in width, with iridescent copper-colored elytra and green thorax and head. A row of white tufts (spots) of hair project from under the wing covers on each side of the body. Males are slightly smaller than females. Grubs are white and lie in curled positions. A mature grub is roughly long.
Popillia japonica is native to Japan, but is an invasive species in North America and Europe.
The first written evidence of the insect appearing within the United States was in 1916 in a nursery near Riverton, New Jersey. The beetle larvae are thought to have entered the United States in a shipment of iris bulbs prior to 1912, when inspections of commodities entering the country began. As of 2015, just nine western states of the United States were considered free of Japanese beetles. Beetles have been detected in airports on the west coast of the United States since the 1940s. Only three were found in Washington State, USA, in 2020, but from late June to September 3, 2021, there were over 20,000 found in Grandview alone.
The first Japanese beetle found in Canada was inadvertently brought by tourists to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, by ferry from Maine in 1939. During the same year, three additional adults were captured at Yarmouth and three at Lacolle in southern Quebec.
Official source
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