Greenhouse Study to Determine the Host Range of the Kudzu Bug, Megacopta cribraria (Heteroptera: Plataspidae)

Abstract

Field-collected adult kudzu bugs, Megacopta cribraria (F.) (Heteroptera: Plataspidae), were exposed over a 5 to 6 wk period to 21 potted plant species in a greenhouse. Egg masses were deposited and nymphs completed development to the adult stage on kudzu, soybean, alfalfa, white clover, white sweet clover, red clover, perennial peanut, and American joint vetch. However, corn, sorghum, tomato, bell pepper, Johnsongrass, perennial ryegrass, partridge pea, garden pea, rattlepods, stylo, crimson clover, hairy indigo, and Florida beggarweed were not utilized by the kudzu bug as reproductive hosts. Implications and potential damage to Florida commercial crops and forages are reviewed.