Prickly solanum 'pico' beetle

How would I recognise it and what is its lifecycle?

Pico beetle adults are easy to recognise. They are oval shaped, around 1 cm long and have a whitish abdomen with distinctive longitudinal black stripes and a yellow and black head. They have a black belly, unlike the similar Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata), which has an orange belly.

Adult pico beetles

Lifecycle

After about a 50-day pre-oviposition period, females lay batches of yellow eggs in clumps on the underside of leaves, which are also easy to se eand take around 14 days to hatch. A single female can lay over 300 eggs, so populations can build up rapidly. The larvae are yellowish with a black head and black legs, and mature larvae have a row of black spots on each side of the body. The larvae feed for about 2 weeks before pupating in the soil, with new adults emerging after about 16 days. A whole life cycle can be completed in 6 weeks. Short day length, cold temperatures and poor food quality may stimulate adults to borrow into the soil for periods ranging up to a few months. 

Pico beetle larvae

How does it damage pico?

The adult beetles and larvae feed on the leaves. They eat away the leaf blades, skeletonising theplant and leaving only the main vines intact. 

Will it attack other plants?

Testing in the laboratory has shown that the beetlecan complete development on eggplant (Solanummelonga) leaves, but that eggplant is a poor-quality host. Populations of beetles reared exclusively on eggplant declined to extinction. In choice tests with eggplant, pico beetles almost exclusively attacked pico. So, while testing shows a potential risk of non-target attack on eggplant if their preferred host plant pico isn’t available, any damage can only be short-lived spillover attack. In Jamaica, where the beetles were collected, they do not attack eggplant and pico is the only host plant. ​

How effective is it?

In the laboratory the beetles are voracious feeders and are expected to be able to have a major impact on pico. The impact of the beetles will be assessed through ongoing monitoring effort

How can I get the most out of it?

The adults are capable of flight, but we do not yet know how fast they will disperse. If redistribution proves to be necessary, the adults or larvae can be shifted to new sites by collecting the leaves they are feeding on and transferring them onto pico plants at new sites.