Creontiades pallidus

Creontiades pallidus (Rambur)

Systematic position: Insecta, Hemimetabola, Hemiptera, Heteroptera, Miridae.

Common name: Cotton shredder bug.

Geographical distribution: Middle East, Africa.

Morphology: Body mostly greenish with some reddish markings, legs and antennae reddish.

Hosts and prey: Creontiades pallidus is an omnivore, feeding on plants, available small insects and their eggs. Host plants include alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), beans (Vicia faba L.) and especially cotton, in addition to other cultivated plants.

Life history: Creontiades pallidus is active from April to the autumn, raising several generations. When alfalfa and cotton are grown in proximity, the pest initially attacks the former crop, later moving onto cotton. It places eggs within the plant tissue, the young emerging within a week. They often prefer to feed on the young cotton bolls, their populations peaking in June-July. Feeding on a combined diet of plant material plus insects resulted in the fastest development.

Economic importance: An occasional, secondary pest of cotton, whose importance has increased due to fewer pesticide applications. Its sucking may result in much shedding of flower buds, flowers, squares and small bolls. Attacked plants grow whip-like, with only few bolls, and the sucking wounds enable mold invasion. At times the pest may seriously reduce cotton yields: in Syria it was calculated that an attack from early July till midā€August, resulted in 50% losses

Management

Chemical control: Pymetrozine, Pyrethroids and organophosphates provide good control, especially if applied on the early seasonal host, alfalfa.

Biological control: The entomopathogenic fungus Entomophtora erupta (Dustan) has caused much pest mortality in Israel. In Iran the predators Nabis sp. (Nabidae and Chrysoperla carnea feed on the pest’s young stages. The braconid Leiophron decifiens (Ruthe) attacked up to 6.5% of the pests in Turkey.

References

Allouche, A., Steinberg, S. and Coll, M. 2007. The influence of prey availability on the level of damage caused by the cotton shedder bug, Creontiades palllidus (Heteroptera:Miridiae), in protected sweet pepper. Israel Journal of Entomology 37: 366-367.

Efil, L. and Bayram, A. 2009. Factors affecting the distribution of two mirid bugs, Creontiades pallidus (Rambur) and Campylomma diversicornis (Reuter) (Hemiptera: Miridae) and notes on the parasitoid Leiophron decifiens Ruthe (Hymenoptera: Braconidae). Entomologica Fennica 20: 9-17.

Hameiri, J., Or, R. and Bitton, S. 1989: Biology and chemical control of the cotton shedder bug Creontiades pallidus Rambur. Hassadeh 69: 1398-1400 (in Hebrew with an English summary).

Jafari, A.A.F., Fathipoury, Y., Hosseini, S.M., Talebi, A. and Aaghar, M. 2006. Preference of Nabis capsiformis and Chrysoperla carnea to different nymph instars of Creontiades pallidus. Journal of Agricultural Sciences, Islamic Azad University 12: 57-65.

Khormali, S. and Taghi, D. 2016. The effect of some insecticides on Creontiades pallidus in cotton fields pf Gorgan and Gonbad-e Kavus. Iranian Journal of Cotton Researches 3: 73-85.

Mahdi, H.S., Bayat, A.H.,.Kamali, K., Shojai, O.M. and Ostaovan, H. 2002. Study on bio-ecology of cotton shredder bug Creontiades pallidus Rambur (Het.; Miridae) in cotton fields of Khorassan, Iran. Journal of Agricultural Sciences, Islamic Azad University 8: 73-94.

Stam, P.A. 1987: Creontidaes pallidus (Rambur) (Miridae, Hemiptera), a pest on cotton along the Euphrates River and its effect on yield and control action threshold in the Syrian Arab Republic. Tropical Pest Management 33: 273-276.

Websites

https://www.google.co.il/search?q=creontiades+pallidus+images&tbm=isch&source=hp&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwizvMbBh4TiAhUO-qQKHSDqAi4QsAR6BAgJEAE&biw=1236&bih=622

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