Pest · sugar beet

Pygmy mangold beetle

Atomaria linearis StephensEPPO code ATOMLI

Ukrainian: бурякова крихітка · Держпродспоживслужба, НААН, НАН
English: pygmy mangold beetle · European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization

How to recognise it

Adult: The beetle is 1.5 mm long, with a narrow, flattened body and an almost square pronotum. The antennae end in a club of 3 segments.
Larva: The larva is white, semi-transparent, 2.5 mm long, with a flat reddish-yellow head, short legs and two chitinised hook-like processes on the last segment.
Egg: Eggs are laid in the soil near beet roots, usually at a depth of 20–30 cm. One female lays 50 eggs.
Damage: The beetles gnaw round pit-like wounds on the underground part of young plants, which makes the plants snap.

Registered against this organism by a ministry order · 1

No rate and no spray timing here: both come from the label and the register.

Agronomy: New sugar beet crops are sited in spatial isolation from last year's beet fields.
Residues are removed after harvest, deep autumn ploughing is carried out and fertilisers are applied.
After harvest, roots left behind are removed from former beet fields and from seed plots, because pests, including the pygmy mangold beetle, can overwinter on them and feed on them further in spring.

Yield loss: When dry weather sets in, damaged plants die. Where the beetles are most numerous, crops are thinned so much that they have to be resown.
Wounds on the hypocotyl can become entry points for black leg pathogens, which makes the thinning of crops worse.

Favourable conditions: In a warm, wet spring, damage to sugar beet seedlings is possible, above all within the pest's range.
It is especially dangerous in years with a cold, wet spring.

Every fact rests on a quote from its source, and each quote was checked against the page it is printed on.

Зайцева І. А., «Сільськогосподарська ентомологія. Курс лекцій», навчальний посібник, 237 с. · Дніпровський державний аграрно-економічний університет, Дніпро, 2021 · p. 128, 132, 133, 138
EPPO Global Database · European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization
Прогноз фітосанітарного стану агроценозів України та рекомендації щодо захисту рослин у 2025 році · Держпродспоживслужба, НААН, НАН · p. 101
Photos: Gabriel Casalanguida, iNaturalist, CC BY 4.0 · Udo Schmidt from Deutschland, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Stephan Kleinfelder, iNaturalist, CC0 1.0

How to recognise it

Adult: The beetle is 1.5 mm long, with a narrow, flattened body and an almost square pronotum. The antennae end in a club of 3 segments.
Larva: The larva is white, semi-transparent, 2.5 mm long, with a flat reddish-yellow head, short legs and two chitinised hook-like processes on the last segment.
Egg: Eggs are laid in the soil near beet roots, usually at a depth of 20–30 cm. One female lays 50 eggs.
Damage: The beetles gnaw round pit-like wounds on the underground part of young plants, which makes the plants snap.

Without chemicals, and prevention

Agronomy: New sugar beet crops are sited in spatial isolation from last year's beet fields.
Residues are removed after harvest, deep autumn ploughing is carried out and fertilisers are applied.
After harvest, roots left behind are removed from former beet fields and from seed plots, because pests, including the pygmy mangold beetle, can overwinter on them and feed on them further in spring.