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Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, June 21, 2023
Crawlies with Cri: by Christy Solo
Weather
Watch
Cave Junction
Thursday, June 22
6% Chance of Rain
High -- 82 Low -- 51
Friday, June 23
24% Chance of Rain
High -- 76 Low -- 50
Saturday, June 24
15% Chance of Rain
High -- 77 Low -- 55
Sunday, June 25
24% Chance of Rain
High -- 78 Low -- 53
Monday, June 26
24% Chance of Rain
High -- 78 Low -- 53
Tuesday, June 27
40% Chance of Rain
High -- 77 Low -- 53
Wednesday, June 28
24% Chance of Rain
High -- 81 Low -- 55
Following are the high & low tempera-
tures, and rainfall recorded in Selma
by Chris Granville
June
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
High
84
88
92
88
77
81
91
Low
48
54
57
51
43
51
54
Rain
0
.28
0
0
0
0
0
year To Date Rain: 49.20
I.V. is off the drought meter - Williams
& Grants Pass are D-0 Abnormally dry
Medford is Moderate drought
(Photo by Christy Solo for the Illinois Valley News)
Ten-lined June beetle (Polyphylla decemlineata)
“How can you tell I’ve been
enjoying the summer sun? You can
see my TEN-LINES! Ha cha cha!”
No one laughs harder at their
own dad jokes than this week’s
crawly. Meet the ten-lined June
beetle (Polyphylla decemlineata).
If you live in the western
United States and have a porch
light, odds are you’ve seen a ten-
lined. Odds are greater one of the
clumsy males has flown into you
with a “thunk” after dark.
True to their name, the best
time to see ten-lined June beetles is
in June. They can be found in our
area in July as well.
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At just under one and one-
quarter inches with bold patterning,
ten-lined are one of our area’s
stand-out arthropods. They are a
native species in the scarab beetle
family.
Fun fact: If “ten-lined”
doesn’t float your boat, they are
also called watermelon beetles
and hissing beetles. Boy, can they
hiss! Adult ten-lined have no
real defense mechanisms. Their
bite force is only sufficient for
chewing leaves, not would-be
predators. They don’t produce any
noxious chemicals and they aren’t
poisonous. So, they hiss. Loudly.
They produce the hiss by
squeezing air out through the
spiracles, which are openings
to the respiratory system. The
openings are along the males’
sides, so their elytra (hardened
wing covers) will move up and
down as they hiss.
Males will also sometimes
fan out their antennae into their
full, feathery shape when feeling
defensive.
When chilling out, their
antennae are pulled together (as in
the photos) and look like simple
club-like antennae. I’ve never
managed to get a photo of one with
the antennae feathered out; it’s
pretty impressive to see though.
Males use those antennae
to sniff the air for female
pheromones. Generally, it’s males
you’ll see out and about and
around lights at night. Females
hang out close to where they hatch
and let the males do all the flying
about to find them.
During the day males hunker
down in foliage, sleeping and
snacking on leaves.
Now, ten-lined can be
considered a pest insect
agriculturally as their larvae feed
on tree roots. However, ten-lined
are generalist feeders; they aren’t
picky about what roots they munch
on, so usually they aren’t around
in significant enough numbers to
cause terminal damage to trees.
Their generalist feeding nature
helps mitigate potential damage as
well because even if there are – say
– five females in one yard (which
is unlikely) they won’t all lay their
eggs near a single tree, or even a
single species of tree.
In an orchard setting, there’s
no choice of tree species, and
all the trees are packed together
presenting an “all you can eat”
buffet, so infestations can happen.
Even then, ten-lined need to be
present in large numbers to cause
noticeable damage or death to
trees.
The upshot is “don’t panic”
if you see them in your yard. Per
Oregon State’s Metro Master
Gardeners Association ten-lined
are “usually not a major problem in
the Pacific Northwest.”