Ivan SIVCEV,  Ivan TOMASEV
Institute for Plant Protection and Environment Banatska 33, 11080 Zemun; Yugoslavia

In 2000 monitoring of Diabrotica virgifera virgifera was organized in Serbia, excluding territory of Kosovo. 300 pheromone traps and visual checking of cornfields were used for detection of presence or absence of imagoes and for population density estimation.  Further spread on the south was not recorded. On the southeast, in the region of Negotin, spreading was registered so that whole territory is infested.

Economic population and damages are registered on the significantly larger territory. According to the available reports and data's, newly registered territories with damages from WCR larvae are around Jagodina (county Pomoravski)  - 120 ha, around Valjevo (county Kolubarski) – 5 ha, around Cacak (county Moravicki) - 9.5 ha and around Kikinda (county Severnobanatski) - 5 ha. For the time being, estimation of total number and surface (ha) of damaged cornfields is not available. One can expect that it will be huge.

Damages manifested itself severely, mostly due to extremely dry season. In some areas in the region of south Backa, imago density was very high (above 20/plant) in cornfields for seed production. 140 ha of such fields were sprayed with insecticides using airplanes.