247 ACTA ZOOLOGICA BULGARICA Acta zool. bulg., Suppl. 9, 2017: 247-254 Research Article * Corresponding author Introduction The Western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte, 1868 (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), is one of the most damaging pests of maize (Zea mays L.) in North America and Europe. In Europe, this species was frstly reported in 1992 in a maize feld near the Belgrade Airport in former Yugoslavia (Bača 1994). However, based on annual growth rate of this invasive alien species, Szalai et al. (2011) estimated that the introduction event has occurred between 1979 and 1984. Since its introduction, D. v. virgifera has been spreading in Europe, and by 2012, the pest has spread to almost all important maize growing areas in Europe, which resulted in well-established populations in many regions (Kiss 2014). The frst detection of D. v. virgifera adults in Bulgaria occurred in 1998, during a monitoring by pheromone traps and yellow sticky traps within the FAO project TCP/RER/6712(A) ‘Development and implementation of containment of the Western Corn Rootworm in Europe’, in Orsoya and Slivata villages (Lom Municipality, Montana District) located near Detection and Monitoring of Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte, 1868 (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) by KLP+ Traps with Dual (Pheromone and Floral) Lures in Bulgaria Teodora B. Toshova 1* , Dimitar I. Velchev 2 , Vasiliy D. Abaev 1 , Mitko A. Subchev 1 , Daniela Y. Atanasova 3 & Miklós Tóth 4 1 Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1 Tsar Osvoboditel Blvd., 1000 Sofa, Bulgaria; E-mails: teodora_toshova@yahoo.com; vasilii.abaev@abv.bg; subchev@yahoo.com 2 Maize Research Institute, 5835 Knezha, Bulgaria; E-mail: mitko_vel4ev@mail.bg 3 Faculty of Plant Protection and Agroecology, Agricultural University, 12 Mendeleev Blvd., 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria; E-mail: daniat88@abv.bg 4 Plant Protection Institute, Centre for Agricultural Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Herman O. u. 15, H-1022 Budapest, Hungary; E-mail: toth.miklos@agrar.mta.hu Abstract: The potential of KLP+ traps baited with dual (pheromone and foral) lures (Csalomon ® , Plant Protection Institute, CAR HAS, Budapest, Hungary) as a new tool for detection and monitoring of the Western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera, was tested in 2015 and 2016 in Bulgaria. Four locations were chosen: Knezha (northwestern Bulgaria), Lozitsa village (north-central Bulgaria), Sofa (western Bulgaria), and Plovdiv (southern Bulgaria). D. v. virgifera was recorded in Knezha, Lozitsa and Sofa. The traps showed very high efciency at diferent population densities of the pest. During our investigation, captures of D. v. virgifera adults were detected from the middle of July until the middle of September. The peak catches of the pest were registered at the end of July – the beginning of August in Knezha and Lozitsa, and in August in Sofa. In Knezha, the captures of beetles were infuenced strongly by the local climatic factors – negatively by the air humidity in August 2015, and positively by the temperature variables in July 2016 (soil temperature) and August 2016 (air and soil temperatures). Key words: Western corn rootworm, non-sticky trap, combination (pheromone and kairomone) lures, climatic factors, Bulgaria brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by Repository of the Academy's Library