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Calendar
BugGuide Gathering
Smoky Mountains
University of Tennessee Biological Field Station
August 8-10, 2008
Details...
 
Photos from the last gathering (Minnesota 2007)

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Family Pyrrhocoridae - Red Bugs

Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hemiptera (True Bugs, Cicadas, Hoppers, Aphids and Allies)
Suborder Heteroptera (True Bugs)
Family Pyrrhocoridae (Red Bugs)
Other Common Names
Stainers
Numbers
1 Nearctic genus.
8 Nearctic species.
Size
8-18 mm.
Range
Most common in the southern United States and regions southward.
Remarks
The Cotton Stainer (Dysdercus suturellus) is a pest of cotton crops. "Feeding on the cotton bolls stains them an indelible yellow as plant sap seeps out of the puncture wound, and microorganisms and fungus grows at the site. The feeding habit also damages the fibres by cutting them, and affects the growth of the cotton boll." (From Naturia website; URL below.)

Bugs of this family feed most commonly on wild members of the Mallow family, but more than one species has developed a taste for cotton.
Works Cited
1.A Field Guide to Insects
By Richard E. White, Donald J. Borror, Roger Tory Peterson