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plant bug, common name for two families of the insect order Heteroptera, The family Lygaeidae (see lygaeid bug) contains around 3,000 species. One of the important members, the chinch bug (q.v.), is an important crop pest.
The members of the family Miridae, one of the largest heteropteran families (about 8,000 species), are also called leaf bugs. They are brightly coloured and feed mostly on plant juices, causing serious crop damage. Plant bugs occur throughout the world and have been found north of the Arctic Circle. They are soft-bodied and small, under 10 millimetres (0.4 inch) long, and easily identified by their four-segmented antennae and their beak.
Among the important species is the four- lined plant bug (Poecilocapsus lineatus), which feeds mainly on blueberries, currents, and gooseberries. This yellowish bug has four longitudinal black lines along its back and is about 8 millimetres (0.3 inch) long. It feeds on plant fluids, producing brown spots on leaves and causing them to wither. The female deposits clusters of six to eight eggs, which hatch the following spring, in plant stems; there is one generation per year. This pest is controlled by pruning or burning contaminated plants.
The tarnished plant bug (Lygus pratensis), a well-known pest in North America, feeds on many plants, ranging from trees to grasses and cereals. It is about 6 millimetres (0.2 inch) long and is dark in colour, with yellow, black, and red markings. The use of insecticides and the elimination of hibernating spots (e.g.,
trash piles) help to control this pest.
The apple red bug (Lygus mendax) is red and black and about 6 millimetres long.
The front part of the thorax and the wings are usually
red, and the posterior thorax and the inner edge of the wings are usually black. It is an important apple orchard pest that causes
spotting of leaves and injures the fruit so that it is not marketable.
The garden fleahopper (Halticus bractatus)
isa small, shiny black jumping bug about 2 millimetres (0.08 inch) long. The forewings of this short-winged leaf bug lack a membrane and resemble the hard forewings of a beetle. The fleahopper sucks the juices from garden plants. There are usually five generations evLery season.
An important cotton pest is the cotton flea- hopper (Psallus seriatus). The oval-shaped adult is around 3 millimetres long and pale green in colour, with four black spots on its body. It passes the winter in the egg stage in the plant tissues of weeds. In the spring after the eggs hatch, the nymphs eat the weeds; Ihey then migrate to nearby cotton fields to feed on the cotton plant. Later, the cotton fleahoppers return to the weeds. The life cycle is short, about 22 days, so that there may be seven or eight generations each season. The cotton fleahopper can easily be controlled by insecticide sprays.
Helopeltis theivora is the tea blight bug of Southeast Asia.
Although most plant bugs are plant pests, some are beneficial. Cyrtorhynus mundulus of Australia feeds on the sugarcane leafhopper’s eggs. It has been introduced into regions (e.g., Hawaii) as a control for this pest.
