Application of hyperspectral imaging to detect temporal infestations of two wheat pests

The wheat stem sawfly, Cephus cinctus Norton (Hymenoptera: Cephidae), and wireworms (Coleoptera: Elateridae), are two of the most destructive insect pests affecting wheat, Triticum aestivum L., production in the Northern Great Plains of the USA. Detecting infestations and relative damage can be challenging on a large scale. Thus, this field trial aimed to investigate the application of remote sensing technology and hyperspectral cameras to generate pest-specific and variety-specific hyperspectral signatures of infestations of C. cinctus and wireworms in spring wheat. Varieties commonly grown in Montana were chosen, and included one solid stem (Choteau), three semi-solid stem (Dagmar, MT Carlson, Vida), and two hollow varieties (Lanning, MT Ubet). Wheat seeds were sown into 12ft×4ft plots, and plots were set up in a randomized complete block design with four replicates per treatment. Bait ball traps were used to monitor wireworms (1 trap/plot), while standard sweeps were conducted to monitor C. cinctus adults. Also, visual inspections were conducted to score C. cinctus larvae damage. A ResononTM hyperspectral camera mounted to an Aurelia Aerospace® X8 Max multicopter drone was used to image plots, and images were analyzed using the software SpectrononTM. Yield was evaluated for all varieties. Although we couldn’t analyze wireworms’ data due to the very low pressure recorded, hyperspectral profiles were obtained with C. cinctus data. Preliminary results show differences in relative reflectance between varieties, with MT Ubet exhibiting the lowest reflectance, while Dagmar and Lanning showed the highest reflectance, suggesting an overall higher tolerance of C. cinctus damage of the latter.