L. FURLAN
Department of Agronomy, Entomology,University of Padova, Italy
M. TÓTH
Plant Protection Institute, Budapest, Pf 102, H-1525 Hungary
W.E. PARKER
ADAS, Woodthorne, Wolverhampton, WV6 8TQ, UK
M. IVEZIC, S. PANCIC, M. BRMEZ
J.J.Strossmayer University, Osijek, Croatia
R. DOBRINCIC, J.I. BARCIC
Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zagreb, Croatia
F. MURESAN
Agricultural Research Station Turda, Romania
M. SUBCHEV, T. TOSHOVA
Institute of Zoology, Sofia, Bulgaria
Z. MOLNAR
I.C.P.C., Brasov, Romania
B. DITSCH, D. VOIGT
Botanical Garden of Dresden, Germany

First data on the effectiveness of the new Agriotes sex pheromone traps in different European countries with different species and populations were presented at XX IWGO Conference in Adana, Turkey (1999). In subsequent years traps were tested in new countries throughout Europe, enabling the relationship between pheromone trap catches and wireworm population levels to be studied under a range of climatic and agronomic conditions.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
From 1999 to 2001 trials were done in the United Kingdom (5 different localities), Eastern Croatia, Central Romania; in 2000 - 2001 in  Bulgaria. In 2001 only, additional trials were done in Central Eastern Romania, Germany and Central Croatia. All trials were done using a common protocol. In the first 2 years YATLOR and VARb traps were used while in 2001 a trap design suitable for both flying and crawling species (YATLORfunnel) was used. Individual traps were baited with the lures for one of the following species: A. lineatus, A. obscurus, A. sputator, A. sordidus, A. rufipalpis, A. brevis, A.litigiosus, A.ustulatus. The areas of the regions where the experimentation was done have very variable climatic and agronomic characteristics. Latitude ranged from 42° in South eastern regions to 56° in the most northern region of the UK. In most cases the soils were acid. Larval population was estimated by using bait traps and soil sampling.

RESULTS
In all regions conducting  studies the pheromone traps were confirmed to be a sensitive tool for detecting the key wireworm species present. At all sites in the United Kingdom only three species (A. lineatus, A. obscurus, A. sputator) were captured. A. obscurus was the dominant species. In acid fields of the other nations a different species range was found. In Bulgaria A. brevis and A. lineatus appeared the dominant species while A. ustulatus was dominant in Germany and Eastern Croatia. The traps appeared to be selective enough to distinguish A. sputator and A. brevis despite these two species being systematically very close.  Agriotes litigiosus and Agriotes sordidus were not found in any of the nations studied while males of minor species (also not Agriotes) were found in some traps (for example Cydnopus pilosus in Bulgaria). The response of the different species to the different monitoring tools was very variable; for example very high numbers of A. lineatus males were captured by the sex pheromone traps at sites (e.g. Croatia, Romania) where bait traps for larvae and soil sampling recovered few or no larvae specimens. In contrast traps for  A. ustulatus caught 2-3 times less adults than the A. lineatus traps cited above in fields with conspicuous A. ustulatus larval populations. Generally the sex pheromone traps proved to be a much more sensitive tool than soil sampling and bait traps for larvae. For all species traps were able to detect wireworm populations below those that can be reliably detected using soil sampling and bait trapping. In addition pheromone traps proved to be effective in detecting the regional variations of swarming patterns of the same species.

Acknowledgements: we thank very much Dr Giuseppe Platia who gave very helpful support to identifying the specimens.