Error message
Unable to fetch location details at this time.
Cotton Stainer Bug
Dysdercus mimulus
22.51, -100.47
Field Notes
Description:
A dark Cotton Stainer with orange lateral wing margins. This is a different species, but with an overlapping distribution, from Dysdercus bimaculatus, spotted on the same night in the same place (see spotting:
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/1976246002/fullscreen). The Cotton Stainers receive their common name because they can transfer fiber-staining microorganisms to cotton bolls. They can be pests of many species including Hybiscus plants and citrus. While supposedly a plant feeding species, this individual is clearly feeding on a small moth, something I haven´t seen reported previously. The third picture is of a different individual, also present that night. Family Pyrrhocoridae.
Habitat:
Came to the lights of a store, Axtla de Terrazas near Xilitla, San Luis Potosí, Mexico.
Notes:
http://www.americaninsects.net/ht/dysdercus-cf-mimulus.html
http://bugguide.net/node/view/723701/bgimage
http://bugguide.net/node/view/723698
http://naturalista.conabio.gob.mx/observations/2090950 http://www.backyardnature.net/yucatan/stainer.htm
See the recent publication by Torsten van de Heyden: An unusual observation: A specimen of Dysdercus mimulus (Hemiptera: Pyrrhocoridae) feeding on a moth. Arquivos Entomoloxicos 15:83-84 (2016).
Comments (2)