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Mar 3, 2021
Tilmon Lab graduate student Adrian Pekarcik received a USDA AFRI EWD Predoctoral Fellowship to investigate the Asiatic garden beetle (AGB), Maladera castanea, an annual white grub species that was introduced to the U.S. in 1921 and has spread to at least 25 states and 2 Canadian provinces. Historically it was a pest of turfgrasses and ornamentals, however, in the last 10 years AGB has emerged as a new pest of field corn in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. We hypothesize that these beetles comprise a genetically distinct population and propose to use molecular genetic tools to compare genetic structure among North America AGB populations. This serves the longer-term goal to understand why AGB has emerged as a new pest. Our objectives are to (1) develop molecular markers for AGB, and (2) assess North American populations for habitat-specific variation and/or geographic variation.
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Feb 12, 2021
Congratulations Amy, Adrian and Kelley, in collaboration with Dr. Ryan Haden (OSU ATI), for recently publishing a manuscript titled "Evaluation of Slug Refuge Traps in a Soybean Reduced-Tillage Cover Crop System" in the journal Insects. This manuscript focused on comparing slug monitoring methods in soybean. Slugs are frequent pests of field crops, including soybean and corn, especially in no-till fields. Because of slugs nocturnal behavior, monitoring is difficult - making trapping the preferred monitoring method.
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Feb 9, 2021
Congratulations to Tilmon Lab undergraduate researcher, Matt Lorentz, on receiving second place for his virtual poster in the P-IE, Ecology section at the annual Entomological Society of America meeting! Matt's poster was titled 'Feeding Performance and Preference of the Asiatic Garden Beetle, Maladera castanea, in Field Crops and was co-authored by Adrian Pekarcik, Amy Raudenbush and Kelley Tilmon. To view Matt's poster, click here.
