Biology and Management of Pest Species in South America.

The genus has over 400 described species, the majority of them neotropical. However, only three species of neotropical are considered agricultural pests: , , and . and are polyphagous both as adults and during the larval stage. are stenophagous during the larval stage, feeding essentially on maize roots, and polyphagous as adults. The larvae of the three species are pests on maize, but larvae also feed on potatoes and peanuts, while larvae feed on beans and peanuts. None of these species express a winter/dry season egg diapause, displaying instead several continuous, latitude-mediated generations per year. This hinders the use of crop rotation as a management tool, although early planting can help in the temperate regions of the distribution of . The parasitoids of adults, and , do not exert much control on populations, or show potential for inundative biocontrol plans. Management options are limited to insecticide applications and Bt genetically modified (GM) maize. Other techniques that show promise are products using and , semiochemical attractants for monitoring purposes or as toxic baits, and plant resistance.