Nysius cymoides (Spinola)
Common name: False chinch bug.
Systematic position: Insecta, Hemimetabola, Hemiptera, Heteroptera, Lygaeidae.
Description: Body grey-brown, about 3.1–4.1 mm in length, eyes large, protruding, wings colorless. Larvae similar, smaller, thorax brown, abdomen redish.
Distribution: Mediterranean Basin, Central Europe, Middle East to Iran, Central Africa. .
Host plants: Polyphagous.
Life history: Nysius cymoides has one or more annual generations and overwinters as an adult. Often it initially feeds on weeds and as its numbers grow, large numbers of the bug may move to nearby cultivated plants. Under laboratory conditions, at around 24.0°C, development of both sexes required about 40 days. A generation at this temperature requires about 60 days, and a female produces about 50 eggs. The threshold of development was calculated to be around 14°C..
Economic importance: The nymphs and adults feed and damage diverse crops, especially due to attacking their seed pods. Important hosts include canola (Brassica napus L.), corn (Zea mays L.), grape, pepper (Capsicum annuum L.), soybeans (Glycine max (L.) Merr.), tomatoes and others, including many weeds. Damage, especially during hot and dry periods, consists of wilting, necrosis of leaves and small branches and loss of weight in seedpods that leads to reduced yields. In vineyards, branches near the ground show desiccation that may result in plant death.
Management
Sampling: Many methods for sampling the pest have been used, including visual examinations, beating or shaking susceptible hosts and collecting the fallen insects, net sweeping, vacuuming, trapping in pans or with sticky traps. Due to the polyphagy of N. cymoides different methods should be used when sampling different crops.
Horticultural methods: Soil tillage, removal of weeds that serve as initial hosts, planting less susceptible crops.
Plant resistance: Various cultivars of canola showed some resistance to N. cymoides in Iran.
Chemical control: Various pesticides control the pest, but they are not currently recommended.
Biological control: Several predators and parasitoids of N. cymoides were recorded in different parts of te world, but none seems to be either specific or capable of controlling the pest.
REFERENCES
Bocchi, S., Cinquata, D., Negri, M., Dioli, P. and Limonta, L. 2016. Nysius cymoides (Spinola) on Chenopodium quinoa Willd. cultivated in Italy.Journal of Entomological and Acarological Research 48: 332-334.
Mohaghegh-Neyshabouri J. 2008. Demography of Nysius cymoides (Het.: Lygaeidae) fed on canola seeds under laboratory conditions. Applied Entomology and Phytopathology 76: 67–79.
Mollashahi, M., Sahragard, A., Mohaghegh-Neyshabouri, J., Hosseini, R. and Sabouri, H. 2016. Resistance of canola cultivars affect life table parameters of Nysius cymoides (Spinola) (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae). Journal of Plant Protection Research 56: 45-53.
Mollashahi, M., Sahragard, A., Mohaghegh, J., Hosseini, R. and Sabouri, H. 2016. Effect of two host plants, Helianthus annuus L. and Sinapis arvensis L., on life table parameters of Nysius cymoides (Spinola) (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae) under laboratory conditions. Plant Protection Science 52: 209-216.
Özgen, I., Kara, B.K., Miroğlu, S., Koç, I. and Dioli, P. 2020. A new potential pest of East and South-Eastern Anatolia and in Turkey: Nysius cymoides (Spinola, 1837) (Heteroptera, Lygaeidae). Munis Entomology & Zoology 15: 265-267.
Scaccini, D. and Furlan, L. 2019. Outbreak of Nysius cymoides on second crop soybean Glycine max and proposal for integrated pest management. Bulletin of Insectology 72: 29-34.
Scaccini, D. and Furlan, L. 2019. Nysius cymoides (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae), a potential emerging pest: overview of the information available to implement integrated pest management. International Journal of Pest Management, https://doi.org/10.1080/09670874.2019.1666174
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