The preference of herbivores for different host plants can be modulated by plant ontogeny. In agricultural pest management, this has implications for sowing dates and pest monitoring. In the last 20 years, the European earwig (Forficula auricularia), a cosmopolitan pest, has been increasingly implicated in damage to grain crops in Australia. Among these, rapeseed, Brassica napus, appears especially at risk, but little information on F. auricularia as a grain pest is available. We tested the susceptibility of seven grain crops commonly grown in Australia to infestation by F. auricularia using closed microcosm experiments, exposing plant seedlings at two early growth stages to four different life stages of F. auricularia. Lucerne and rapeseed were shown to be the most vulnerable crops, and younger seedlings experienced significantly more damage than older seedlings across all crop types. Fourth instar F. auricularia were found to cause greater feeding damage than younger or older earwigs, while adults collected in winter generally caused more damage than those collected in summer. Surprisingly, even second instar F. auricularia caused greater damage than summer adults. This variation could reflect the ontogenetically dynamic nutritional needs of earwigs. Recent studies of F. auricularia's life cycle in southern Australia indicate that these damaging life stages have some overlap with sowing dates of the crops tested here, exposing their vulnerable seedling stage to infestation. The phenology of F. auricularia in southern Australia therefore partly drives its ability to act as a pest. Future monitoring will likely need to track the distribution of F. auricularia life stages in order to effectively mitigate risks to vulnerable crops.

中文翻译：

---

欧洲ear（Forficula auricularia）的个体发育与谷物作物相互作用，加剧了进食损害的风险

草食动物对不同宿主植物的偏好可以通过植物个体发育来调节。在农业害虫管理中，这对播种日期和害虫监测有影响。在过去的20年中，一种国际性的害虫欧洲ear（Forficula auricularia）越来越多地牵涉到澳大利亚谷物作物的破坏中。在这些油菜中，油菜，甘蓝型油菜似乎特别有危险，但很少有关于稻谷镰刀菌作为谷物害虫的信息。我们测试了七粮的敏感性庄稼通常在澳大利亚由增长到侵扰F.黑木耳用封闭的缩影实验，在两个早期生长阶段暴露植物幼苗到四个不同的生命阶段F.黑木耳。卢塞恩和油菜籽被证明是最脆弱的农作物，在所有作物类型中，年轻的幼苗遭受的伤害要大于古老的幼苗。发现四龄幼虫耳F比年轻或年长的假发对食物的伤害更大，而冬季收集的成年人通常比夏季收集的损害更大。出人意料的是，即使是第二龄幼虫，耳廓镰刀菌也比夏季成年人造成更大的伤害。这种变化可能反映了ear的个体发育动态营养需求。耳孢镰刀菌的最新研究在澳大利亚南部的生命周期表明，这些破坏性的生命阶段与此处测试的农作物的播种日期有些重叠，使他们脆弱的幼苗阶段容易受到侵扰。因此，在澳大利亚南部，耳廓镰刀菌的物候学在一定程度上驱动了其作为害虫的能力。未来的监测可能将需要追踪耳形木耳生活阶段的分布，以便有效减轻易受害作物的风险。