Sunn pest or corn bug – Eurygaster integriceps Puton, 1881.- Cyprus

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Order: Hemiptera

Family: Scutelleridae

Eurygaster integriceps is a species of shield bug in the family Scutelleridae, commonly known as the sunn pest or corn bug. It is native to much of northern Africa, the Balkans and western and central Asia. It is a major pest of cereal crops especially wheat, barley and oats.

Morphology and biology

The colour of the sunn pest varies but it is usually light brown. The body is a broad oval about 12 millimetres (0.5 in) long. The scutellum is wide and chitinous and covers the wings and the whole abdomen. The insect lives for about a month during which time the females lay twenty eight to forty two eggs. These are laid in batches each having two neat rows of seven eggs, on the underside of leaves and on the stems of the host plant, or sometimes on weeds. The eggs take six to twenty eight days to hatch and the nymphs moult five times while they feed on the leaves, stems and ears of cereal crops for the next twenty to forty five days. They grow fastest at an air temperature of 20–24 °C (68–75 °F). The second and third instars have a pale abdomen and dark head and thorax. The fourth instar has the rudiments of fore wings and the fifth instar, the rudiments of hind wings as well.

Distribution

The sunn pest is found in Northern Africa, Albania, Greece, Bulgaria[1] and Romania. In Asia it occurs in Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and the republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. In Russia it has spread into the central and Volga Basin regions, the Northern Caucasus, the Chelyabinsk region and Bashkortostan.

Ecology

The adults mostly overwinter in leaf litter in woods but some find refuge among rough vegetation. When the temperature reaches about 13 °C (55 °F) they seek out cereal crops, start to feed on the stems, leaves and developing seed heads, mate and lay their eggs. There is only one generation each year so adults and nymphs can be found feeding together on the ripening grain. If the insects are not fully developed when the crop is harvested, some nymphs and young adults feed and mature on fallen grain and other crop residues before flying off to their winter quarters. In Syria, they spend about nine months in hibernation. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurygaster_integriceps

Photo 2005 by George Konstantinou