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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Tifton, Georgia » Crop Protection and Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #314587

Title: Relative longevity of adult Nezara viridula (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) in cotton, peanut and soybean

Author
item Olson, Dawn
item RUBERSON, JOHN - Kansas State University
item ANDOW, DAVE - University Of Minnesota

Submitted to: Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/28/2015
Publication Date: 3/15/2015
Citation: Olson, D.M., Ruberson, J., Andow, D. 2015. Relative longevity of adult Nezara viridula (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) in cotton, peanut and soybean[abstract]. Entomological Society of America Annual Meeting.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Producers in the Southeastern US face significant crop losses from the stink bugs, Nezara viridula, Euschistus servus, and Chinavia hilaris. Cotton, peanut, and soybean are major agronomic crops and host plants of stink bugs in the region. N. viridula colonize and feed in peanut. Stink bugs prefer the seeds/fruit of host plants and the fruiting structures in peanut are not available to these species, suggesting that this crop is a lesser quality host for southern green stink bugs than crops with fruiting structures. Therefore, an understanding of the relative performance of stink bug species among these host crop habitats is needed to clarify this aspect of their population dynamics in regional landscapes. We conducted a field plot study of the relative longevity of adult, unmated N. viridula males and females caged on peanut, cotton and soybean. Using survival estimates, we found that the proportion of the wasps surviving did not depend on the sex of the individual. After combining the sexes we found a significant difference in the proportion of adult stink bugs surviving among the crops where survival in cotton and soybean did not differ and was about twice that of peanut. Mortality per week accelerated in peanut, whereas these rates were constant in cotton and soybean. The longevity of N. viridula in peanut suggest that this is a poor quality resource, and this species will likely rapidly leave peanut to colonize more preferred crops as they become available.