 Cereal leaf beetle adult (left) and larva (right) Cereal Leaf Beetle These metallic blue-black and red beetles are about 4 mm long. They feed on all cereal crops but tend to prefer barley. Overwintering adults appear in the spring, feed, and lay yellowish eggs. Damage is a characteristic removal of green tissue from between the leaf veins. Larvae are small (4 mm), yellow, humpbacked insects that resemble Colorado potato beetle larvae. They cover their top sides with dark, slimy fecal material. Like the adults, they remove green material from between the leaf veins, but their feeding scars are more ragged.
|
