Liorhyssus hyalinus, hyaline grass bug, attacking lettuce

Jesse Bamba brought me two specimens of a scentless plant bug collected from romaine lettuce. I identified these as Liorhyssus hyalinus (Hemiptera: Rhopalidae), the hyaline grass bug. This bug is listed in Gross (1963) [1].

The lettuce had symptoms of a viral disease. It is unlikely that these bugs are vectors of the virus. According to Mitchell (2004) [2]: "The true bugs (Heteroptera) are generally considered to be of minimal importance regarded as vectors of plant pathogens, although they share similar feeding behaviors with homopterans ". Her article goes on to explain why this is so.


References

  1. G. F. Gross, {INSECTS OF MICRONESIA Coreidae, Neididae, and Nabidae}, Insects of Micronesia, vol. 7, pp. 357–390, 1963.
  2. P. L. Mitchell, {Heteroptera as Vectors of Plant Pathogens}, Neotropical Entomology, vol. 33, pp. 519–545, 2004.

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Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith