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  • From: "Richard MURPHY" <murphman108@msn.com>
  • To: "nafex" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Click Beetles
  • Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 22:53:18 -0400

Ignoramous Murph here again;
 
I forgot to mention these other weird bugs I found on my 1 year old cherry trees. As best I can tell from available resources, they are called 'Click Beetles'. See photos Click Beetle 1 & 2.
 
During an inspection of the trees, I noticed something odd. About one out of every 10 leaves had a beetle on the petiole. See the hand-drawn sketch "LeafBeetle". Each beetle was perched as shown, not appearing to do anything but sit there staring at the leaf. They all had their head near the little nodules where the leaf meets the petiole. Not eating the leaf; not doing anything. That's why I didn't kill them. Also, not one of them flew away. I could flick them off with a finger.
    They shook off the branch very easily, as they have wimpy little legs. As I collected a few samples in a jar, I noticed these things could jump really high, like a grasshopper or a flea. They do not jump using their legs. They seem to 'buckle over', then straighten out really quickly, launching themselves into the air. None of my Fruit Pest books carried this bug in it. Also, they weren't interested in the apples (100 trees) or pears (60 trees). Just tart cherries; I think Benton or Surefire, can't recall. I don't think the Evans had any.
    Further reading says they may eat nectar or pollen or leaves, but some of them may eat aphids. As with beetles, there are a bazillion kinds of Click Beetles. Even my Vietnamese friend at work was familiar. I hope they are predators. They did not appear to be causing any damage. Can these guys just eat the sap and then go away? Has anyone else had these bugs? Should we kill them?
 
Richard Murphy
 

Attachment: clickBeetle01.jpg
Description: JPEG image

Attachment: LeafBeetle01.jpg
Description: JPEG image

Attachment: clickBeetle02.jpg
Description: JPEG image




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