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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Systematic Entomology Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #351157
Research Project: Systematics of Hemiptera and Related Groups: Plant Pests, Predators and Disease Vectors

Location: Systematic Entomology Laboratory

Title: Sixeonotopsis crassicornis Carvalho and Schaffner (Hemiptera: Miridae): New distribution records and first host-plant association

Author
item WHEELER JR., A. - Clemson University
item Henry, Thomas

Submitted to: Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/27/2018
Publication Date: 5/14/2018
Citation: Wheeler Jr., A.G., Henry, T.J. 2018. Sixeonotopsis crassicornis Carvalho and Schaffner (Hemiptera: Miridae): New distribution records and first host-plant association. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington. 12(2):442-447.

Interpretive Summary: Plant bugs represent the largest family of true bugs and include numerous agriculturally important species. Many, such as lygus bugs, are serious crop pests, causing enormous economic losses in the United States annually. This paper provides new distribution records and the first known host for a plant bug previously known only from Texas. This species causes heavy chlorosis or leaf spotting to its host, similar to a number of related pest species, including the bean plant bug. A new state record for Arkansas is given and a diagnosis, description, and color illustrations are give help the identification of this plant bug. This information will be of interest to a wide range of researchers, regulatory personnel, and Federal and state departments of agriculture studying insects associated with truck and field crops in the southern United States.

Technical Abstract: Sixeonotopsis crassicornis Carvalho and Schaffner has remained obscure since its 1974 description from Texas and has been known only from the type locality. It is newly recorded from Arkansas (two locales) on branched foldwing (Dicliptera brachiata [Pursh] Spreng.; Acanthaceae), the first plant documented as a host of this bryocorine mirid of the tribe Eccritotarsini. Branched foldwing, known from the type locality of S. crassicornis (Palmetto State Park, Gonzales County, TX), is suggested to have been the source of specimens used in the original description. Collection data are given for a recently identified specimen of the plant bug collected in 1906 from Victoria, Texas. Notes on the bug’s habits, habitat, and seasonality are included, as well as a diagnosis, redescription, and discussion of its taxonomic relationship to other North American eccritotarsine Bryocorinae.