Comparisions of two populations of tarnished plant bugs (Lygus lineolaris) from Mississippi

Lygus lineolaris is an economically important pest of cotton in Mississippi. Economic data indicate that L. lineolaris populations in the Delta region of Mississippi are more damaging and more difficult to control than populations from the Hills region. Experiments were conducted to compare L. lineolaris populations from the two regions of Mississippi. In the first experiment colonies of L. lineolaris were collected and reared in a lab to measure development time, survival, fecundity, and hatch rate on several hosts. This experiment revealed no regional differences between L. lineolaris, but development time, survival, and fecundity were effected by host. In the second experiment, samples of L. lineolaris were collected from locations around Mississippi and the cox1 region of the genome was compared. Results of this experiment revealed two clades (clade 1 and clade 2) of L. lineolaris were present in the Delta region while only one clade (clade 2) was present in the Hills region. Taken together, these data do not provide evidence of differences between populations of L. lineolaris in the two regions.