tarnished plant bug scientific name: Lygus lineolaris (Palisot de Beauvois) (Insecta: Hemiptera: Miridae)

Introduction

The tarnished plant bug, Lygus lineolaris (Palisot de Beauvois), attacks a wide variety of economically important herbaceous plants, vegetable crops, commercial flower plants, fruit trees, and nursery stock (Kelton 1975). In fact, over half of the cultivated plant species grown in the United States are listed as host plants for tarnished plant bugs (Capinera 2001).
Less well known, but of increasing importance, is that L. lineolaris feeds on conifer seedlings. Coniferous nursery stock in British Columbia, Oregon, Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Oklahoma has been damaged by L. lineolaris (Schowalter et al. 1986, Shrimpton 1985, South 1986). Approximately 50% of the loblolly pine seedlings in one southern forest nursery was damaged by L. lineolaris (South 1986). In early 1989, the risk of feeding damage by L. lineolaris prompted several Florida forest nurseries to initiate preventive insecticide applications. In one nursery, by late May 1989, non-treated plots of bare-root pine averaged 18.5 live pine seedlings/square foot, of which 24% exhibited feeding damage by L. lineolaris, while in insecticide-treated plots a density of 24 live pine seedlings/square foot and 2% damage was observed. Pine seedlings in a nursery severely damaged by L. lineolaris usually do not survive the growing season.

Distribution

Lygus lineolaris occurs in all Canadian provinces, the continental United States, and most of the states of Mexico (Kelton 1975, Young 1986).
Description

Adult: The adult male is 4.90-5.95 mm long, with a width of 2.38-3.01 mm.; while the adult female is 5.25-5.95 mm long with a width of 2.52-3.01 mm. The head is yellowish-brown, with the frons smooth with black submedian lines. The rostrum is 2.17-2.52 mm long. The pronotum is yellowish to reddish brown, with the anterior angles rounded. The mesoscutum is black in color with the lateral areas pale or reddish. The hemelytra (anterior wings) are reddish brown, with a pubescence moderately long, dense and yellowish. The summer adult color varies from pale yellow with few black markings to reddish brown, or almost completely black with few pale yellow markings (Kelton 1975, 1980). The antennae and legs are relatively long. Overwintered adults are much darker than the summer adults (Capinera 2001).

Authors: Wayne N. Dixon, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Division of Plant Industry, and T.R. Fasulo, University of Florida.
Originally published as DPI Entomology Circular 320. Updated for this publication.
Photographs: Scott Bauer, USDA
Drawings: Division of Plant Industry
Project Coordinator: Thomas Fasulo, University of Florida
Publication Number: EENY-245
Publication Date: November 2001. Latest revision: November 2009.
Copyright 2001-2009 University of Florida