Plant Bugs

Description

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Miridae are small, terrestrial insects, usually oval-shaped or elongate and measuring less than 12 millimetres (0.5 in) in length. Many of them have a hunched look, because of the shape of the prothorax, which carries the head bent down. Some are brightly coloured and attractively patterned, others drab or dark, most being inconspicuous. Some genera are ant mimics at certain stages of life. Miridae do not have any ocelli. Their rostrum has four segments. One useful feature in identifying members of the family is the presence of a cuneus; it is the triangular tip of the corium, the firm, sclerotized part of the forewing, the hemelytron. The cuneus is visible in nearly all Miridae, and only in a few other Hemiptera, notably the family Anthocoridae, which are not much like the Miridae in other ways. The tarsi almost always have three segments.

Some mirid species

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Lygus bugs (Lygus spp.), including the tarnished and western tarnished plant bugs, are serious pests in the cotton, strawberry, and alfalfa industries. Stenotus binotatus, a minor pest of cereal crops, especially wheat Apple dimpling bug (Campylomma liebknechti) damages apple blossoms and small growing fruits. Mosquito bugs Helopeltis and Afropeltis spp. – that infest various crops including tea, cacao and cotton Honeylocust plant bug (Diaphnocoris chlorionis) damages foliage on honeylocust trees.Green mirid (Creontiades dilutus) damages many types of field crops. Potato capsid (Closterotomus norwegicus) is a noted pest of potato and clover plants in New Zealand. Deraeocoris nebulosus prefers other insects to plants in its diet, and has been used as a biocontrol agent against mites and scale insects. Dicyphus hesperus sucks sap from various plants and preys on whitefly and red spider mites and can be used in biological pest control.

Systematics

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This family includes a large number of species, many of which are still unknown, distributed in more than 1300 genera. The taxonomic tree includes the following subfamilies and numerous tribes:

Bryocorinae Bryocorini Dicyphini Eccritotarsini Cylapinae Cylapini Fulviini DeraeocorinaeClivinematini Deraeocorini Hyaliodini Saturniomirini Surinamellini Termatophylini Isometopinae Diphlebini Isometopini Mirinae Herdoniini Hyalopeplini Mirini Pithanini Restheniini StenodeminiOrthotylinae Ceratocapsini Halticini Orthotylini Phylinae Hallodapini Leucophoropterini Phylini Pilophorini

Further reading

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Cassis, G.; Schuh, R. T. (2012). “Systematics, Biodiversity, Biogeography, and Host Associations of the Miridae (Insecta: Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Cimicomorpha)”. Annual Review of Entomology. 57: 377–404. doi:10.1146/annurev-ento-121510-133533. PMID 22149267. Wheeler, Alfred George Jr. (2001). Biology of the plant bugs (Hemiptera: Miridae), pests, predators, opportunists. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-3827-1. Google books preview

External links

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PBI Plant Bug Index Link to Al Wheeler’s book on the biology of mirids Research on mirids of Southern California at UC Riverside Garden fleahopper on the University of Florida / Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Featured Creatures website

Miridae are small, terrestrial insects that are usually less than 12 millimeters long. They come in a variety of colors and patterns. One way to identify them is by the presence of a triangular tip on their forewing called the cuneus. Miridae includes numerous species, many of which are still unknown, distributed in over 1300 genera. Some mirid species are pests in various industries, such as lygus bugs, apple dimpling bugs, and the green mirid. Miridae also have potential uses in biological pest control. The taxonomic tree of Miridae includes several subfamilies and tribes. For further reading, there is a review article on the systematics and biodiversity of Miridae, as well as a book on the biology of plant bugs.

Ancestry Graph

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Further Information

„Plant Bugs“ on wikipedia.org

„Plant Bugs“ on iNaturalist.org

Copyright

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Miridae the free encyclopedia Wikipedia which is released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License). On Wikipedia a list of authors is available.