Natural control of populations of the southern green stink bug, Nezara viridula

Abstract

Summary Based on the results of five‐year study on the Nezara population, it was concluded that the level of abundance of the insect was determined partly by the combination and relative adundance of the host plants and partly by the climatic factors. The endless increase of the population was checked by the deleterious effects associated with the overpopulation which occurred locally. The degree of such overpopulation was determined by the relative abundance of host plants to the current level of the population. Therefore, even when the general level of Nezara population seemed to be low, there still exists the possibility of overpopulation in some areas. Winter was the critical period which threatened the persistence of Nezara population. The survival of the hibernating adults was partly dependent on the physiological state of adults which was determined in the period of pre‐hibernation. But when the severity of a winter exceeded the tolerance limit of the insect, the only safety‐valve which prevented the elimination of Nezara was the heterogeneity of hibernacula. Therefore,Milne's theory (1957) was closest to the known facts.

Distribution range shift of two allied species, Nezara viridula and N. antennata (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae), in Japan, possibly due to global warming

“…In Japan, northward expansion has been reported for various butterfly species (e.g., Nakasuji, 1988;Yoshio and Ishii, 2001;Kiritani and Yamamura, 2003) and stink bugs (e.g., Hayashi, 1997;Musolin and Numata, 2003a;Ito, 2004;Kiritani, 2006b). Among stink bugs, the northward range expansion by Nezara viridula (L.) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) is particularly a matter of some concern for agricultural production in newly invaded areas because it is one of the serious pests of rice plants and various other crops (e.g., Kiritani, 1971;Todd, 1989). In addition, the northward shift of N. viridula involves an interesting ecological aspect of interspecific competition with its allied congener, the oriental green stink bug, Nezara antennata Scott, which is widely distributed in Japan from Okinawa to Hokkaido, Korea, China, and southeastern Asian countries (e.g., Hayashi, 2002).…”

“…viridula is distributed widely in the tropics, subtropics, and temperate zones of the world (e.g., Yukawa and Kiritani, 1965;Kiritani, 1971;Todd, 1989;Panizzi et al, 2000). In Japan, N. viridula was recorded first in 1874 (location not given) and then in 1879 in Nagasaki Prefecture, Kyushu ( Fig.…”

Northward range expansion by Nezara viridula (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) in Shikoku and Chugoku Districts, Japan, possibly due to global warming

“…Kiritani et al (1966) and Kiritani (1971) proposed a regression line, YϭϪ16.45Xϩ147.08 (R 2 ϭ0.6127, pϽ0.0001), between the mortality of N. viridula (Y) and the mean temperature for January (X). This suggests that every 1°C rise would result in a decrease in winter mortality of about 16.5% in N. viridula, provided that X remains from 3 to 7°C (Kiritani, 2006(Kiritani, , 2007; therefore, winter mortality would become about 65% at 5°C, which is the northern range limit of N. viridula.…”

“…In Japan, northward range expansion has been reported mainly for butterflies (e.g., Yoshio and Ishii, 2001;Kiritani and Yamamura, 2003) and stink bugs (e.g., Musolin and Numata, 2003;Kiritani, 2007;Yukawa et al, 2007;Tougou et al, 2009). Among them, the range expansion by Nezara viridula (L.) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) is particularly a matter of some concern for agricultural production, because it is known as a serious pest of rice plants and various other crops (e.g., Kiritani, 1971;Todd, 1989;Panizzi et al, 2000). In addition, N. viridula has caused the local extinction of its allied congener, Nezara antennata Scott, as a result of their interspecific mating, which prevented N. antennata from intraspecific mating because N. antennata was overwhelmed in abundance by N. viridula, which has higher reproductive potential than N. antennata under warm conditions with sufficient food resources, i.e., rice plant (Kiritani et al, 1963;Kiritani, 1971).…”

“…Among them, the range expansion by Nezara viridula (L.) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) is particularly a matter of some concern for agricultural production, because it is known as a serious pest of rice plants and various other crops (e.g., Kiritani, 1971;Todd, 1989;Panizzi et al, 2000). In addition, N. viridula has caused the local extinction of its allied congener, Nezara antennata Scott, as a result of their interspecific mating, which prevented N. antennata from intraspecific mating because N. antennata was overwhelmed in abundance by N. viridula, which has higher reproductive potential than N. antennata under warm conditions with sufficient food resources, i.e., rice plant (Kiritani et al, 1963;Kiritani, 1971). In contrast, interspecific mating may prevent N. viridula from establishing in newly invaded areas, because of the difficulty of finding conspecific partners under sparsely populated conditions in the initial stage of invasion.…”