Biology and management of the annual bluegrass weevil, listronotus maculicollis (coleoptera: Curculionidae)

The annual bluegrass weevil (Listronotus maculicollis Dietz, formerly Hyperodes sp. near anthracina-anthracinus) (ABW) is the single most destructive insect pest on golf-course turfgrass in many states in the northeastern United States. Damage from the weevil is especially evident in short-mowed areas on tees, fairways, collars, and greens with a high percentage of annual bluegrass (Poa annua). ABW injury to turfgrass was rst reported in Connecticut in 1931 and until the past 15 years was concentrated around the metropolitan area of New York including northeastern New Jersey and southwestern Connecticut.¹ Severe infestations are now being reported from all other states of the Northeast (Delaware, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont), west into Ontario, and north into Quebec. In 2004, problems were reported for the rst time in Maryland, representing the southern front of the weevil's expanding range of impact in the mid-Atlantic (Figures 21.1a through 21.1d).