Seasonal Abundance of Lygus lineolaris (Heteroptera: Miridae) and Selected Predators in Early Season Uncultivated Hosts: Implications for Managing Movement into Cotton

Abstract

Seasonal patterns of abundance of tarnished plant bug (TPB), Lygus lineolaris (Palisot de Beauvois), on uncultivated roadside hosts near large cotton fields were determined in two physiographic provinces, the Highland Rim (HR) and the Coastal Plain (CP) of Alabama. Sequence of hosts utilized was similar between years in both provinces, but time that hosts harbored populations shifted in the HR, probably in response to rainfall. Erigeron annuus (L.) Persoon and Erigeron strigosus Muhlenberg ex Willdenow, in the HR and CP, respectively, held the densest populations during the time cotton was in an early square growth stage. In both provinces, diversity and density of hosts, and frequency of most hosts, declined while cotton was entering this growth stage. The predators Geocoris spp., Orius spp., and Coccinellidae shared the same hosts in early spring, but were much less dense than TPB on late spring-early summer hosts. Polymerus basalis (Reuter) shared some of the same hosts in the CP. Heavy rainfall in the spring along with an increased frequency and diversity of uncultivated weedy hosts of TPB coincided with low estimates of cotton yield loss from plant-bug feeding. Potential for area-wide management via host manipulation and potential effects on predator populations are discussed.