Abstract
The present investigation tests through friction experiments the attachment ability of adults of the southern green stink bug Nezara viridula L. (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae), a polyphagous insect representing a cosmopolitan pest, on different host plant species characterized by smooth, hairy and waxy surfaces. Surfaces of different tested plants have been studied in Cryo-Scanning Electron Microscope (Cryo-SEM). The load cell force transducer was used to evaluate the potential damage to the insect attachment devices induced by walking on the different leaf surfaces. In case of the plant Phaseolus vulgaris, where insects showed a strong reduction in their adhesion ability during and after walking on the leaf, the damage to the insect by two cultivars with different morphological features and the insect ability to recover after 24 h has been evaluated. The ability to recover notwithstanding the damage to attachment devices, shown by Cryo-SEM investigations, together with the strong attachment forces produced on various plant leaves, characterized by different morphological features, is in agreement with the great adaptability and ecological plasticity of this widely-spread bug species. The present study, increasing our knowledge on the mechanical interaction of this species with different host plant species, can help to develop new strategies to control this insect pest.
Highlights
Plants and herbivorous insects are united by intricate relationships
The data reported in the present investigation, aiming to evaluate the attachment ability of N. viridula at the adult stage on different host plant species, reveal that N. viridula realizes the same attachment on both sides of each plant, except for P. vulgaris
The best adhesion is realized on S. melongena. This means that the dense pubescence, formed by non-glandular stellate trichomes with vertical arms and accumbent side arms present on both leave surfaces of this plant species, does not reduce the insect attachment ability but, on the contrary, is probably used by insect claws to improve attachment during pulling
Summary
During the long period of coevolution between insects and plants, these last developed a wide diversity of features, to attract pollinators, and to defense against herbivores These features are chemical and physical barriers affecting insect performance on the plant surface. Several studies have been carried out to characterize the attachment systems of different insect taxa including Blattodea, Coleoptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, Orthoptera, Thysanoptera, Homoptera and Heteroptera (for a detailed bibliography see introduction in[13]) In this last suborder, experimental studies on the attachment devices are limited to one species of Coreidae[14] and two of Miridae[8,15,16,17]. To evaluate the role of these attachment devices, behavioural experiments testing N. viridula with ablated pulvilli, hairs and claws, using a traction force experiments set up, have been performed on artificial substrates characterised by different roughness and on substrates with different surface energies and underwater[22]
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