Atomaria linearis Stephens, 1830

This generally common species occurs throughout Europe and North Africa extending east through temperate Asia and north to Scandinavia and the UK where it is common and often abundant throughout the south in a wide variety of habitats. Larvae develop in the soil feeding upon a range of plants, mostly Chenopodiaceae, Poaceae and Fabaceae but the species is best known because the adults may cause serious damage to mangold and beet crops and, to a lesser extent, carrot and potato plants. Away from agricultural habitats the adults occur among decaying vegetation generally, in compost, hay, straw and accumulated leaf-litter.  On the continent it remains an occasional serious pest of beet crops in many areas e.g. Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and Holland, but following changes in UK legislation in the 1930’s, which enforced compulsory beet-crop rotation in an effort to control beet cyst nematode, it has rarely been a problem here. Adults occur year-round; they overwinter among leaf-litter, under debris or in the soil, sometimes to a depth of a metre, and become active during mild days in early spring when they aggregate in large numbers on the soil surface prior to dispersing over short distances when the temperature reaches 17°C. Dispersal continues into June as more overwintered adults emerge from the soil, they feed initially during the day on remains of the previous year’s crop or on organic debris etc. but soon become crepuscular and nocturnal and then they may occur at light in numbers. It is the adults dispersing in numbers among crops that do the damage; they feed on the roots and hypocotyls, and bore holes and pits into cotyledons and developing stems, often killing seedlings and sometimes entire areas of crops, in large infestations summer populations of several million per hectare. Such numbers usually follow cold and damp springs when the adults remain in the soil longer than usual. When seedlings have developed past the four true-leaf stage they can usually compensate for the damage and resist further attack. Oviposition begins in May and continues until September and so populations overlap, and there is a second generation during the summer and autumn;  each female  will lay  about  50 eggs  in the soil  among the  host root