Nezara viridula

Nezara viridula.

The southern green stink bug is a cosmopolitan pentatomid, highly polyphagous, feeding on both cultivatedand uncultivated plants. Becauseof this, and because it is a pest of many economic plants worldwide, it is probably the most studied pentatomid.

Among the species observed on privet, N. viridula was, by far, the most abundant (fig. 1). Nymphs and adults were present during most of the year, particularly from earlyautumn to early-winter (March-June). Apparently this occurred due to dispersion of the bugs from rural areas, where they colonize soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merrill, which is harvested late February-early March, to the urban areas, where privet trees are present at full fruiting stages at this time. Nymphs and adults were not recovered during January- February, when they were possibly concentrated on soybean, and July-September, when fruiting structures are less abundant, and the bugs look for alternate hosts or are present in low numbers.

Adults green, with segments of the antenna reddish (fig. 9). The median body length of females 18 mm (n = 10) and of males 14 mm (n = 10).

Nymphs predominantly green, but dark forms occur (fig. 10). Eggs light yellowishwhite (figs. 11, 12) or cream colored turning pinkish and reddish as embryo develops. In the laboratory, nymphs completed development on immature fruits of privet (mortality of 38.7 %), and adults show an excellent reproductive performance (PANIZZI et al., 1996),

which isthe reason why privetfruits are being used tomass rear this bug in the laboratory. This is reinforced by the fact that far more nymphs were captured than adults, because of the high rate of egg production by females.