Tarnished plant bug (tpb)
The tarnished plant bug (TPB), Lygus lineolaris, is a species of plant-feeding insect in the family Miridae. It has piercing-sucking mouthparts and has become a serious pest on small fruits and vegetables in North America. It is considered a highly polyphagous species and feeds on over half of all commercially grown crop plants, but favors cotton, alfalfa, beans, stone fruits, and conifer seedlings. A study done in southwestern Quebec, Canada has investigated the presence of L. lineolaris in a commercial vineyard. This study also indicated that weeds that grow from cultivation of crops serve as an important food source for L. lineolaris. This insect can be found across North America, from northern Canada to southern Mexico. Adults grow up to 6.5 mm in length, and are brown with accents of yellow, orange or red, with a light-colored "V" on the back (dorsal). The genome has recently been sequenced for the first time.
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DiurnalDiurnal animals are active during the daytime, with a period of sleeping or other inactivity at night. The timing of activity by an animal depends ...
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TerrestrialTerrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land (e.g., cats, ants, snails), as compared with aquatic animals, which liv...
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OviparousOviparous animals are female animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive...
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starts withMowing and maintenance of weed plants can control the population of L. lineolaris adults within crop fields and vineyards. Rainfall can be classified as a form of mechanical control of L. lineolaris because rain drops may knock individuals off plants and cause a reduction in their survival. The results from a study investigating the effects of rainfall on the nymphal population of L. lineolaris indicated that the number of nymphs decreased during the heavy rainfall years. During the years with heavy rainfall, there was also less parasitism of L. lineolaris by the parasitoid wasp P. digoneutis. Due to their results that rainfall decreases L. lineolaris population, the researchers suggested that sprinkler irrigation should be used in alfalfa fields because it simulates rainfall.
Although it is known to feed on almost all commercial crops,L. lineolaris specifically prefers to feed on young apples and weeds. The TPB has a special mode of feeding called the "lacerate and flush" feeding strategy where it uses sucking mouthparts to inject saliva into the host plant. The saliva of the TPB contains an enzyme called polygalacturonase which degrades plant tissue and pectin in the plant cell wall allowing for faster digestion. Researchers interested in examining other components of L. lineolaris saliva used illumina (Solexa) sequencing to discover the roles of proteins within saliva. They accomplish this via presenting a salivary gland transcriptome of the TPB. The researchers discovered TPB sialotranscriptome that played a role in extra-oral digestion.
L. lineolaris utilize cotton plants as one of their main reproductive hosts. Females lay eggs in the first row of cotton plants and later occupy more plants in the field. The females usually lay eggs in May after the overwintering period. The eggs hatch and nymphs begin to develop around June. The highest population level of L. lineolaris is typically marked in October and June, and it is seen to also trigger a rise in the population level of Pisaurina mira, a nursery web spider that preys on L. lineolaris.
