Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/733
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Item Taxonomic studies on click-beetles (Coleoptera: Elateridae)(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2019) Etzler, Frank Eric; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Michael A. Ivie; Paul J. Johnson was a co-author of the article, 'Athoplastus johnson and etzler (Coleoptera: Elateridae: Dendrometrinae), a new genus of click beetle from the northwestern continental USA' in the journal 'Coleopterists bulletin' which is contained within this dissertation.Click-beetles (Coleoptera: Elateridae) have historic difficulties at the subfamilial, tribal, and generic level, with many genera poorly defined at the global scale. This dissertation makes the definitions of four groups work world-wide to enable easier communication between regions. These clearer definitions also serve as foundations for future studies at higher levels, such as the tribal and subfamilial level. In this work, two new genera are described, seven species are described as new, 109 new combinations are proposed, and 5 new names are proposed to correct new homonyms. Keys to species are provided for the North American species in Athoplastus and Hemicrepidius and the species north of Mexico for Paradonus. A key to genera in the Limonius genus-group is provided, with a key to species provided for the newly described genus in that group. Important morphological characters are illustrated for each genus or genus group, and habitus photos are provided for all species in the examined regions for the genera Athoplastus, Hemicrepidius, and Paradonus.Item Identification of economic wireworms using traditional and molecular methods(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2013) Etzler, Frank Eric; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Michael A. Ivie; Kevin W. Wanner, Anuar Morales-Rodriquez and Michael A. Ivie were co-authors of the article, 'DNA barcoding to improve the species level management of wireworms' submitted to the journal 'Journal of economic entomology' which is contained within this thesis.; Michael A. Ivie was a co-author of the article, 'Review of the Limonius canus LeConte, 1853 (Coleoptera: Elateridae)' submitted to the journal 'The coleopterists bulletin' which is contained within this thesis.Interest in wireworms has grown in the past decade due to their increasing pest status, largely due to the removal of effective seed treatments from the market. Currently, there is no effective Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategy to control for wireworms, due to the diverse number of species that make up complexes in cropland. The purpose of this study was to determine what wireworm species are present in Montana's croplands and develop tools to make species concepts accessible to non-specialists. This was done using DNA barcoding to associate wireworms with adults. DNA barcoding was done by amplifying the Cytochrome-Oxidase I (COI) region of the mitochondrial genome. Twenty-nine (29) species were successfully sequenced and 13 species had adult and larval associations made, including three new associations. In addition, a LUCID pictorial key was also created to help identify species occurring in Montana. A LUCID key is a computer-based key where a user identifies a specimen with the help of pictures of each character. During the wireworm study, one species-group in the genus Limonius was found to include many economic species, including two that are important in Montana. This group needed to be reevaluated due to controversies raised in a recent revision, many of which dealt with economic species. With the combined use of morphological characters and DNA data, eight species are now recognized as belonging to the group. All of these subprojects show the combined use of DNA and morphology as essential to fully understanding wireworm species. With a more precise knowledge of the species that make up the complexes in Montana's croplands, we can focus on developing IPM stratetgies for efficient control.