Julien Saguez

Centre de Recherche sur les Grains Inc. (CÉROM) | CEROM · Department of Entomology

In central Canada, surveys for the three invasive (Palearctic) Agriotes species—A. obscurus, A. lineatus, and A. sputator—commonly collect A. pubescens, a North American native (Nearctic) click beetle (Coleoptera: Elateridae) that generally co-occurs with Nearctic A. mancus. Despite the abundance of A. pubescens on farmland, its life history and po...

With increasingly fewer insecticides registered to control the larvae of pest click beetles (Coleoptera: Elateridae), integrative beetle management, including pheromone- and light-based trapping of adult beetles, must be explored as an alternative strategy. Here, we analyzed the spectral sensitivity and color preference of 9 elaterids across 6 gene...

Sex pheromone lures are effective tools for monitoring and potentially controlling populations of pest click beetles (Coleoptera: Elateridae). To date, these lures are genus‐specific (e.g., Limonius spp.) or species‐specific (e.g., Agriotes lineatus Linnaeus). However, if sympatric heterogeners were not to be repelled by each other's pheromones, tr...

Transgenic corn and cotton that produce Cry and Vip3Aa toxins derived from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are widely planted in the United States to control lepidopteran pests. The sustainability of these Bt crops is threatened because the corn earworm/bollworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie), is evolving a resistance to these toxins. Using Bt sweet corn as...

The wheat wireworm, Agriotes mancus (Coleoptera: Elateridae), is a predominant elaterid pest species in the Nearctic region, with a life history and morphology similar to those of Agriotes obscurus , Agriotes lineatus and Agriotes sputator , three Palearctic pest elaterids invasive in North America. Here, we report the identification and field test...

Le présent guide vise à fournir de l’information sur la biologie des vers fil-de-fer, les dommages qu’ils causent, les méthodes de lutte, la recherche et les défis rencontrés dans les cultures pratiquées dans les Prairies canadiennes. Nous avons résumé les connaissances actuelles sur ce ravageur persistant et complexe dans les Prairies et nous disc...

This guide is intended to provide information on wireworm damage, biology, management, research and challenges in crop production on the Canadian Prairies. We have summarized the knowledge of this persistent and complicated pest on the Prairies by discussing the general life cycle, behaviours, and management options for the main pest species in thi...

As part of an insect resistance management plan to preserve Bt transgenic technology, annual monitoring of target pests is mandated to detect susceptibility changes to Bt toxins. Currently Helicoverpa zea (Boddie) monitoring involves investigating unexpected injury in Bt crop fields and collecting larvae from non-Bt host plants for laboratory diet...

The western bean cutworm, Striacosta albicosta (Smith), is considered a major corn pest in North America. In 2009, it started invading the province of Québec (northeastern Canada). To our knowledge, there has been no evidence that this pest could overwinter in this province. In the falls of 2017 and 2018, storage totes containing mature western bea...

We develop apps for insect recognition and scouting. Article in french

The COVID-19 pandemic forced most entomologists to rearrange their professional and personal lives significantly, affecting research, teaching, extension, and outreach programs worldwide. Changes to entomology programs stimulated by the pandemic in 2020 may very well have long-lasting effects far into the future. We invited multiple authors to sha...

Les producteurs doivent souvent faire face à la présence d’ennemis des cultures, notamment des insectes ravageurs qui peuvent causer des pertes de rendement importantes. Il existe bien évidemment plusieurs méthodes de lutte pour protéger les cultures. Les ennemis naturels, aussi appelés organismes bénéfiques ou auxiliaires des cultures, en font pa...

Paper in french on artificial intelligence and automated traps to monitor insects pests in field crops

Article in french on the Brown marmorated stink bug, and the impact of climate change on this insect in Quebec crop fields

Phytoplasmas are small unculturable and wall-less prokaryotes that are transmitted by phloem-feeder insects. Depending on the economic value of the plants they infect and/or the lifespan of the infected plants, phytoplasma infection can have devastating economic impacts in term of fruit/seed production and quality. To date, there is no commercially...

La légionnaire uniponctuée, Mythimna unipuncta (noctuidé) migre chaque printemps vers le Québec en provenance des États-Unis. Bien que ferventes des graminées, les chenilles sont polyphages et la défoliation occasionnée par leurs infestations sporadiques peut générer des pertes de rendements. Il est donc important d’actualiser et d’acquérir de nouv...

The province of Quebec (Canada) represents the northernmost area of distribution of several pests including lepidopteran and hemipteran pests. Due to cold winter conditions, several of them migrate annualy in spring to Quebec, flying from their native distribution area. Using bio-climatic models, we also identified non-native pests that could invad...

Article (in french) on western bean cutworm (WBC) in corn field in Quebec (Canada)

Poster sur la légionnaire uniponctuée, sa biologie et son dépistage. (en français)

Outil numérique qui participe à l'amélioration du dépistage et du contrôle des vers fil-de-fer. http://cerom.qc.ca/vffqc Ce projet a été réalisé dans le cadre du volet 3.2 du programme Prime-Vert-Approche interrégionale avec une aide financière du ministère de l'Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l'Alimentation par l'entremise du fonds vert.

This is a pdf version of a webinar entitled "La problématique des cicadelles en vignobles" authored by Charles Vincent, Jacques Lasnier, Julien Saguez and Chrystel Olivier. Presented in French in the context of a webinar series for agronomists and growers, the document reviews research and extension work conducted on the system phytoplasma/vines/...

Présentation en français donnée dans le cadre des journées de Formation continue de l’Ordre des Agronomes du Québec. Série de 5 conférence à Joliette, St Hyacinthe, Drummondville, Lévis et Rimouski. Cette conférence traite de l'outil VFF QC destiné aux agronomes et producteurs.

(Poster in french) Lors de fortes infestations, le puceron du soya, Aphis glycines Matsumura (Hemiptera: Aphididae), peut affecter le rendement des cultures de soya, tant en termes de quantité que de qualité, en raison de transmissions virales lors de sa prise alimentaire. Les semenciers désirant obtenir des lignées exemptes de virus, la résistance...

This poster (in french) presents the impacts of climate changes on insects and diseases in crop fields in Quebec. We modelized the development of species and the potential distribution areas of the species in the future, depending on several scenarios. The objective of this study is to find climate analogues in the world to adapt the management of...

Article (in french) on ticks in Quebec (Canada) / Article en français traitant des tiques au Québec (Canada).

Depuis de nombreuses années le papillon amiral a été choisi par un vote démocratique pour être le papillon / insecte emblème du Québec. Cette reconnaissance n'est toujours pas officialisée.

This article in french presents the app we develop to predict wireworms occurence in crop fields

Insecticide seed treatments are widely used in Quebec crop fields to manage soil insect pests, especially wireworms that constitute the main pests collected in bait traps. The most abundant species in Quebec was Hypnoidus abbreviatus (Say), which represented ca. 73% of all specimens. However, high population level (> 3 wireworms/bait trap) was only...

In 2017, several projects were conducted in different field crops (maize, soybean, wheat and canola) located in Quebec. Different kinds of traps were used to monitor insect pests, including notably soil insects and different moths (the black cutworm Agrotis ipsilon, the western bean cutworm Striacosta albicosta and the armyworm Mythimna unipuncta)....

Electropenetrography (EPG) is a method largely used to study the feeding behaviour of piercing-sucking insects, notably aphids and cicadellids. It allows to record specific electrical signals (waveforms) when an insect inserts its mouthparts in the plant tissues. Depending on the type of signal, their frequency and their duration, it is possible to...

This document (in french) presents a selection of ca. 40 species (insects and diseases) occuring in Quebec crop fields or that could be potentially invasive in a close future, due to the climatic changes.

Wireworms are important economic pests that attack the seeds and roots of numerous vegetable and field crops worldwide. A 5-yr study was conducted in the main agricultural regions of the province of Quebec (Canada), to identify and characterize the wireworm communities (Coleoptera: Elateridae) that occur in fields planted with economically importan...

This paper (in french) presents the different genus of wireworms that occur in crop fields in Quebec.

Fiche destinée aux producteurs permettant d’obtenir des informations sur les vers fil-de-fer dans les grandes cultures au Québec.

Au Québec, le maïs, le soya, les céréales et les prairies constituent les principales grandes cultures. Les vers fil-de-fer ou larves de taupin (Coleoptera : Elateridae) figurent parmi les ravageurs qui sont considérés comme présentant le plus de risques pour les semis, notamment lors de la germination. Afin de mettre en place des stratégies de lut...

Introduction: The first report of phytoplasmas in Canadian vineyards was done in 2006 when Bois Noir phytoplasmas were discovered in Ontario. Since this year, a multidisciplinary team has worked on the system leafhoppers/grapevines/phytoplasmas in Canadian vineyards to know the epidemiology of phytoplasma diseases in commercial vineyards, to identi...

Grapevines can be attacked by a number of pests, including leafhoppers (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) (Olivier et al. 2012). In Canada, ca. 100 species have been found associated with vineyards (Saguez et al. 2014, 2015b). Although a large proportion of these leafhoppers were found to be phytoplasma-positive (Olivier et al. 2014), this does not mean tha...

Présentation des vers fil-de-fer, des résultats des recherches menées depuis 2011 au Québec et présentation de l’arbre décisionnel.

The article present the Montreal Insectarium that celebrated 25 year in 2015.

Les cicadelles peuvent infliger des dommages considérables dans les vignobles canadiens, en particulier lorsque leurs populations atteignent des densités élevées. Depuis 2006, plusieurs entomologistes d’Agriculture et Agroalimentaire Canada participent à divers programmes de recherche visant à évaluer la biodiversité des cicadelles et la prévalence...

In Canadian vineyards, leafhoppers can be serious pests, particularly when populations reach high densities. Since 2006, several entomologists from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada have worked together under various research programs to assess leafhopper biodiversity and the prevalence of phytoplasma diseases in Canadian vineyards. This work was ca...

Atractotomus mali (Meyer-Dür, 1843) (Hemiptera: Miridae) is a zoophytophagous insect associated with orchards in Europe and North America. In Canada, it has previously been reported in apple (Malus domestica Borkh) orchards in several provinces, but mainly in Nova Scotia, where it induced more damage on fruit than predatory effects. During the summ...

Feeding behavior of three leafhopper species – Erythroneura vitis (Harris), Erythroneura ziczac (Walsh), and Erythroneura elegantula (Say) (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) – reared on grapevine, Vitis vinifera L. cv. ‘Seyval blanc’ (Vitaceae), was investigated using histological techniques and DC-electrical penetration graphs (DC-EPG). Histological studie...

Premier insectarium fondé en Amérique du Nord, l’Insectarium de Montréal célèbre cette année ses 25 ans d’existence. Il est l’un des plus importants musées consacrés exclusivement à l’entomologie à travers le monde. Si les 340 000 visiteurs qui y passent chaque année ont accès à un musée abritant des expositions permanentes et temporaires où l’on p...

This paper (in french) answers different question on the tritrophic interaction between leafhoppers, grapevines and phytoplasmas.

Cet article en Français répond à divers questions sur les interactions phytoplasmes/vigne/cicadelles

Grapevine Yellows, caused by phytoplasmas, are economically important diseases that have been detected in most grape-growing regions of the world. Phytoplasma are mainly transmitted by leafhoppers that are phloem feeders. In order to better understand the epidemiology of phytoplasma diseases in grapevines grown in Quebec (QC), it is important to kn...

Leafhoppers (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) are pests of many temperate crops, including grapevines (Vitis species). Uncontrolled populations can induce direct and indirect damage to crops due to feeding that results in significant yield losses and increased mortality in infected vineyards due to virus, bacteria, or phytoplasmas vectored by leafhoppers....

Aphids are phloem-sap sucking insects that cause important losses to potato crops, especially by virus transmission. Aphid development, their biological and physiological adaptations, and their feeding behavior are key attributes that pose major challenges to the management of aphid populations and virus spread in potato fields. These attributes ar...

BACKGROUND An evaluation was made of the effects of seven neurotoxic insecticides (esfenvalerate, indoxacarb, clothianidin, thiacloprid, azinphosmethyl, phosmet and imidacloprid), one insect growth regulator (novaluron) and two fungicides (myclobutanin and mancozeb), with water as the control, on the horizontal mobility of plum curculios exposed to...

p style="text-align: justify;"> Aim : Surveys conducted between July and September 2012 in Quebec vineyards revealed the presence of the spotted wing drosophila (SWD), Drosophila suzukii Matsumura, just before harvest. Methods and results : Red and white grapevine cultivars from four vineyards were surveyed for leafhoppers by using a tapping method...

Lignans and neolignans have been reported to exert different biological activities, including insecticidal ones. Three lignans, secoisolariciresinol (SECO), secoisolariciresinol diglucoside (SDG), and anhydrosecoisolariciresinol (AHS), and one neolignan, dehydrodiconiferyl alcohol-4-b-D-glucoside (DCG), were isolated from flax. Their insecticidal p...

Première mention de la présence de la drosophile à ailes tachetées (Drosophila suzukii) dans les vignobles québécois

The synthesis of four GlcNAc(β1→4)Glc disaccharides containing 2-O-acetyl and/or 6-sulfate groups was performed in high yields with total 1,2-trans stereoselectivity. These disaccharides were evaluated as candidates for insect chitinase inhibition and aphicidal activity. All the compounds prepared displayed physiological effects on M. persicae aphi...

Auchenorrhyncha is the hemipteran suborder that includes cicadas, leafhoppers, froghoppers or spittlebugs, planthoppers and treehoppers. Leafhoppers (Cicadellidae) are cosmopolitan and one of the largest insect families with approximately 22,000 described species (Forero 2008). Planthoppers (infra-order Fulgoromorpha) are mainly tropical with appro...

Hydrolytic enzymes involved in chitin degradation are important to allow moulting during insect development. Chitinases are interesting targets to disturb growth and develop alternative strategies to control insect pests. In this work, a chitinase from the aphid Myzus persicae was purified with a 36-fold purification rate in a three step procedure...

Leafhoppers of the genus Erythroneura cause severe damage in vineyards of North America. Between 2006 and 2008, a survey conducted in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec vineyards showed that Erythroneura species represented the most important group of leafhoppers. Some of them were detected positive for Aster Yellow phytoplasmas. In order to unde...

Nous rapportons une méthode en deux étapes pour élever trois espèces de cicadelles, Erythroneura elegantula Osborn, Erythroneura vitis (Harris), et Erythroneura ziczac Walsh, aux fins d'expérimentations sur vigne. La première étape consiste à élever les adultes sur des plants de vigne, pour permettre la reproduction, la ponte, et le développement d...

We report a two-step method to rear three leafhopper species, Erythroneura elegantula Osborn, Erythroneura vitis (Harris), and Erythroneura ziczac Walsh, for experimental purposes on grapevines. The first step involves rearing adults on grapevines for reproduction, oviposition, and egg development. The second step involves rearing nymphs on isolate...

Les phytoplasmes sont des parasites obligatoires se multipliant dans le phloème des plantes et dans les organes de leurs insectes vecteurs (principalement des cicadelles). Les phytoplasmes sont responsables des jaunisses de la vigne dans la majorité des régions viticoles. Un programme de surveillance des maladies à phytoplasmes a été mis en place d...

Phytoplasmas prevalence in leafhopers found in Canadian vineyards

Overexpressed in transgenic plants, protease inhibitors showed insecticidal effects against several insect taxa. We transformed potato internodes with the mustard trypsin inhibitor mti-2 gene. Among the 35 independent transgenic potato lines obtained via Agrobacterium tumefasciens transformation, four (DM6, DM7, DM11, and DM19) were selected for th...

In North America, elm yellows, aster yellows (AY), and X-disease phytoplasmas have been detected in American grapevines (1), and recently, Bois noir was detected in Canadian vineyards from British Columbia (BC) and Ontario (ON) (2). Typical symptoms of grapevine yellows (GY) include leaf rolling and chlorosis, uneven or total lack of lignification...

Pathogen and pest management is a key element in agriculture. The Integrated Pest Management concept relies on the availability of an array of protective measures having different but complementary mechanisms. As a consequence, alternative strategies have to be developed. Because chitin occurs in the cell wall of fungi and in various structural com...