DATA: The optimal choice of trap type for recently spreading jewel beetle pests, <i>Lamprodila festiva</i> and <i>Agrilus sinuatus</i> (Coleoptera, Buprestidae)

Two jewel beetle species native to Europe, the cypress jewel beetle, <i>Lamprodila</i> (<i>Palmar, Ovalisia</i>) <i>festiva</i> L. (Buprestidae, Coleoptera) and the sinuate pear tree borer, <i>Agrilus sinuatus</i> Olivier (Buprestidae, Coleoptera), are key pests of ornamental thuja and junipers, and of orchard and ornamental rosaceous trees, respectively. Although chemical control measures are available, due to the beetles’ small size, agility and cryptic lifestyle at the larval stage, efficient tools for their detection and monitoring are missing. Consequently, by the time emerging jewel beetle adults are noticed, the trees are typically significantly damaged. Thus, the aim of this study was to initiate the development of monitoring traps. Transparent, light green and purple sticky sheets and multifunnel traps were compared in field experiments in Hungary. Light green and transparent sticky traps caught more <i>L. festiva</i> and <i>A. sinuatus</i> jewel beetles than non-sticky multifunnel traps, regardless of the larger size of the coloured surface of the funnel traps. Although light green sticky sheets turned out to be optimal for both species, using transparent sheets can reduce catches of non-target insects. The key to the effectiveness of sticky traps may lie in the behavioural responses of the beetles to the optical features of the traps.