NPIPM:Halticus bractacus (soybean)
Authors: Buyung Hadi and Jeffrey Bradshaw
The garden fleahopper, Halticus bractacus, is a plant bug in the family Miridae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) native to the eastern half of the United States.
Identification
The nymphs of garden fleahopper are greenish and the adults are black in color. The adult females may assume one of two possible shapes: one with oval body and short wings or one with slender body and fully winged. The short-winged female form resembles the shape of small aphids or flea beetles. Unlike aphids, the garden fleahopper readily jump when disturbed. The garden fleahopper differs from flea beetles in the way it feeds on the host plant. While flea beetles chew plant tissues, leaving holes on the leaves, garden fleahopper extract plant sap using its piercing and sucking mouthparts. The garden fleahopper males are always fully winged. The wings of garden fleahopper are peppered with small white spots. The wing tips of the fully-winged form are membranous and overlap.
Life Cycle and Seasonal History
Mated females lay eggs in the spring in feeding punctures. The resulting nymphs feed on the underside of the host leaves for 11-41 days before becoming adults. There are three generations per year, and the insects are usually present between April and September. The garden fleahopper may overwinter as adults or eggs.
Plant Injury and Damage
Garden fleahopper injure plants by sucking plant sap using its piercing and sucking mouthparts. The feeding activity usually leaves marks of small pale spots on both sides of the leaf. High population of garden fleahoppers may exert large stress on soybean plants causing the leaves to wither and die. However, plants are not likely to be killed and may fully recover with adequate soil moisture.
The insect can feed on a wide range of hosts, including alfalfa, beans, clovers, barley, corn, oats and wheat. However, garden fleahopper rarely cause economic damage on soybean.
Management Approaches
Scouting and Threshold
Garden fleahoppers may be present in soybean from mid-June through August. As already mentioned, it is a rare pest on soybean, some observable infestation of garden fleahopper on soybean has been reported from Iowa, mostly on fields adjacent to alfalfa fields. No economic threshold has been developed for garden fleahopper.
Other Online Resources
For information regarding labels of chemical control options, please visit Agrian.com
