LITERATURE-REVIEW OF SUNN PEST EURYGASTER-INTEGRICEPS PUT. (HEMIPTERA, SCUTELLERIDAE)

Sunn pests, the general term for a group of three dozen or more specie s of insect belonging to the sub-order Heteroptera, have been recognis ed as serious pests of wheat and other cereal crops throughout the Nea r and Middle East and much of the former USSR, for more than 70 years. This review is confined to one of the key species within this group, namely Eurygaster integriceps. Large outbreaks, which generally occur every 5-8 years, can cause yield losses of the order of tens of millio ns of dollars e.g. in northern Iraq in 1991/92 and 1994/95. As yet, no pest management strategy has been developed to control it economicall y or sustainably either on a national or global scale. Information on its taxonomy, biology, ecology, population dynamics (particularly the biotic and abietic factors influencing or regulating population size a nd distribution) is reviewed in order to gain a better understanding a s to how it can best be controlled. Much of this information is availa ble only in 'grey' literature, in a language other than English - the lingua franca of most current scientific publications - or as unpublis hed reports. This review attempts to bring this information together a nd identifies constraints which appear to the author to be based on co ntrol strategies which rely mainly, if not solely, on the use of conve ntional broad spectrum insecticides. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. Al l rights reserved.