Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
crops such as carrot, linseed and potato. The
adults and nymphs produce distinctive reddish
spots on the foliage; these feeding punctures
gradually enlarge and turn brown, eventually
developing into holes. The insects damage buds,
flowers, leaves and shoots, and infested plants
may become distorted; also, attacked tissue often
withers and dies. Heaviest attacks tend to occur
in weedy sites and are often restricted to the
headlands of fields.
eluding field crops (e.g. beet, broad bean,
French bean, runner bean, potato and swede),
fruit crops (e.g. apple, blackberry, currant,
gooseberry, raspberry, strawberry) and various
ornamentals. Adults and nymphs cause consid-
erable damage to buds, flowers, fruits, leaves
and shoots. Symptoms vary from host to host,
attacked tissue becoming discoloured, distorted
and, often, ragged, tattered or peppered with
holes. Although most often encountered on out-
door plants, infestations are sometimes noted
during the summer in glasshouses, especially on
chrysanthemum plants.
BIOLOGY
Eggs laid in summer overwinter in the woody or
succulent shoots of host plants. They hatch in
late May or early June, and nymphs feed for up
to 6 weeks before moulting into adults. There is
just one generation annually.
BIOLOGY
This capsid overwinters as eggs in the bark
on shoots of apple, currant and other woody
hosts, the eggs hatching in April and early May.
Nymphs attack the young foliage of their woody
hosts, before eventually departing for herba-
ceous plants where they complete their develop-
ment. Adults of the first generation occur in June
and July. They deposit eggs in the tissue of
herbaceous hosts (including crops and various
weeds). Second-generation nymphs complete
their development by the autumn. Second-
generation adults then migrate to woody hosts,
in which winter eggs will be laid.
DESCRIPTION
Adult
6-8 mm long, mainly green to yellowish-
green, with black body hairs;
elytra
often tinged
with reddish-brown;
pronotum
straight-sided,
often with a pair of black spots;
forewings
with
the membrane often matt black.
Nymph
simi-
lar in appearance to adult but wingless, although
later instars with obvious wing buds.
Dicyphus errans
(Wolff)
Slender grey capsid
DESCRIPTION
Adult
5.0-6.5 mm long, bright green with a
dusky-yellow pubescence;
antennae
moderately
long;
pronotum
with paired, relatively incon-
spicuous, callosities
(Fig. 182)
(cf. apple capsid,
Plesiocoris rugicollis,
p. 98).
Egg
1.3mm
long, creamish in colour, banana-shaped.
Nymph
pale green to bright green;
antennae
orange-red apically.
This polyphagous capsid occasionally causes mi-
nor damage to potato, puncturing and distorting
the foliage. Numbers present, however, are usu-
ally small. The adults are slender-bodied, 4.5-
5.0mm long, with the head, thorax and first two
antennal segments mainly brown or black; the
elytra are mainly grey or yellowish-white and
narrow. Nymphs are mainly green but reddish
anteriorly. Adults are most numerous in June and
July
on weeds such as
Epilobium
and
Stachys
sylvatica;
infestations on potato are most likely to
occur on headlands alongside weedy sites.
Lygus rugulipennis
Poppius
Tarnished plant bug
Lygocoris pabulinus
(L.)
Common green capsid
Although associated mainly with weeds, espe-
cially Chenopodiaceae, this generally common
bug also occurs on various crops, including
brassicas, celery, legumes, potato, strawberry,
sugar beet and glasshouse-grown cucumber.
This capsid is a widespread and often abundant
pest of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants, in-
