A review of feeding studies of Lygus spp. with emphasis on artificial diets

Several researchers have reported varying degrees of success with diets for Lygus spp. Earlier efforts at developing diets for lygus were based on the assumption that the hemipteran feeding mechanism restricts ingestion to ma terials that were already liquids before feeding had begun. Therefore, the diets formulated for lygus bugs consisted only of ingredients that were sol uble or that could be included as emulsions (i.e., lipids). Interestingly, simultaneous with the early diet work, several exquisitely detailed and ver y sophisticated histological studies showed that lygus bugs destroy solid p lant tissues and remove particulate cellular contents, including storage va cuoles, plastids, nuclei, etc. In the mid-1970's some literature emerged de scribing lygus bugs as facultative entomophages, but diet researchers evide ntly assumed that lygus bugs, as well as other hemipterans, used only the " body fluids" of their insect prey. Although earlier diet work provided some excellent basic information about consumption and utilization rates, as we ll as some excellent basic nutrition information, none of these studies pro vided diet formulations that could be used in a practical lygus rearing sys tem. It was not until a nutritionally complex diet slurry was described tha t rearing systems could be advanced. The feeding mechanisms of lygus are di scussed here as they relate to application to artificial diet technology.