Saccharum angustifolium (Nees) Trin. (Poales: Poaceae) as hibernacle for stink bugs during the soybean and corn off-season in Southern Brazil

Abstract

Host plants are key factors in the survival of true bugs during unfavorable periods. The objective of this study was to evaluate the composition, diversity and abundance of pentatomid bugs in Saccharum angustifolium (Nees) Trin. (Poales: Poaceae). Plants were evaluated during the soybean and corn off--season for five years. A total of 250 plants were sampled, the true bug population was counted and used for statistical and faunistic analysis. We observed the occurrence of the species: Euschistus heros (F.), Dichelops furcatus (F.), Dichelops melacanthus (Dallas), Edessa meditabunda (F.), and Edessa ruformaginata (De Geer). Among the species, the highest population density was verified for E. meditabunda, E. heros, and D. furcatus. We also observed a direct effect of the clump diameter on the population density of E. heros, D. furcatus, and E. meditabunda. Finally, we conclude that S. angustifolium plants serve as adequate hibernacles for the survival of true bugs of economic importance during the soybean and corn off-season.

Relationship Between Stink Bug Populations in Winter Shelters and Atmospheric Variables in Soybean Growing Areas in Southern Brazil

“…It is shown in this work that the air relative humidity during the off-season is an important predictor of the population abundance of stink bugs in quiescence sites. Based on the results obtained in this work and in others that evaluated the population dynamics of stink bugs, it can be observed that the changes in the patterns of abundance and co-occurrence during the off-season are not random (Engel et al 2019, Panizzi 1997, Panizzi et al 2012, Silva et al 2013. This has important implications for agriculture and for ecology, with regard to the generation of predictive models for pest bugs in southern Brazil, being an aid in the determination of the possible causes in climatic terms.…”

“…In short, the results obtained in this experiment demonstrate how the climatic variation during the off-season of the soybean crop rapidly translated into changes in abundances and co-occurrence of stink bugs in refuges. The searching pattern for economically important stink bugs by alternative plants during the off-season in the Neotropical region has been widely corroborated (Smaniotto & Panizzi 2015;Pasini et al 2018, Engel et al 2019. Nevertheless, few studies are dedicated to determining which variables influence their abundance within this period (Santos et al 2006, Klein et al 2013, Fuentes-Rodríguez et al 2020.…”

Spatial Distribution of Tibraca limbativentris (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) in Babassou Palms

“…A behavior confirmed by Pasini et al (2018) who demonstrated the root bug in clumps of foxtail grass, Andropogon bicornis L and A. lateralis (Poaceae) in the rice crop's off-season period. According to Engel et al (2019), these alternative resource sources help bugs survive unfavorable periods.…”