Anthocoris nemoralis

Anthocoris nemoralis
Acompocoris alpinus depicted in Edward Saunders Hemiptera Heteroptera of the British Islands (figure 3)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Suborder: Heteroptera
Family: Anthocoridae
Genus: Anthocoris
Species: A. nemoralis
Binomial name
Anthocoris nemoralis
(Fabricius, 1794)

Anthocoris nemoralis is a true bug in the family Anthocoridae. The species is found in Europe and has spread to North America.[1] It is a predator of aphids, spider mites and jumping plant lice, and is used as a biological pest control agent.[2]

Description

The adult of this species is about 3 mm (0.12 in) long and is mostly black, with white markings on its wings. The nymphs grow to about 6 mm (0.24 in) long, the smaller nymphs being yellowish to orange, and the larger ones having a yellowish to orange head and thorax and a darker coloured abdomen.[3]

Distribution

A. nemoralis has a palearctic distribution and is found in Great Britain and other parts of Western Europe. It was introduced into Eastern Canada accidentally, and then in 1963 was introduced purposefully into British Columbia in an attempt to control pear psylla. Later it spread southwards to California where it feeds on various exotic psylla pests of ornamental plants.[4]

Ecology

Both the nymphs and the adults of A. nemoralis are predaceous, feeding by plunging their proboscises into their insect prey and sucking out the body fluids. Adults overwinter under bark, among leaf litter or in other sheltered locations. They emerge in spring to lay their eggs in plant tissues of their host tree. In leaves, the eggs are inserted under the epidermis so that there is a bulge in the leaf surface, and only the whitish operculum (cap) at one end of the egg is visible. These soon hatch into nymphs which feed voraciously and the whole developmental cycle takes about fifteen days. There may be four generations in the year.[3]

These bugs are able to utilise a range of different trees, with a wide range of prey being targeted; the prey include aphids, spider mites, thrips, juvenile scale insects, pear psylla and the eggs of a variety of insects.[3] The French entomologist Franck Hérard in 1986 listed it as eating twelve species of insect and five species of mite.[5] In Europe it is considered to be one of the most important control agents of Cacopsylla pyricola and Psylla pyri and has a density-dependent relationship with the former.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Fauna Europaea
  2. ↑ Neil Helyer, Nigel D. Cattlin, Kevin C. Brown, 2014 Biological Control in Plant Protection: A Colour Handbook, Second Edition CRC Press ISBN 9781840761177
  3. 1 2 3 Warner, Geraldine (1993). "Anthocorid bugs". Orchard Pest Management Online. Washington State University. Retrieved 3 May 2018.
  4. 1 2 Fisher, T.W.; Bellows, Thomas S.; Caltagirone, L.E.; Dahlsten, D.L.; Huffaker, Carl B.; Gordh, G. (1999). Handbook of Biological Control. Elsevier. pp. 397–398. ISBN 978-0-08-053301-8.
  5. ↑ Hérard, F. (1986). "Annotated list of the entomophagous complex associated with pear psylla, Psylla pyri (L.)(Hom.: Psyllidae) in France". Agronomie. 6 (1): 1–34.
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