Geocoris superbus Montandon

Hemiptera: Lygaeidae: Geocorinae

Length: 4.75mm, eyes castaneous, head and pronotum yellow in colour. Pronotum is transverse with punctures present on lateral and anterior side of pronotum, a large triangular black spot is present at the base of pronotum. Scutellum is entirely black. Antennae are 4 segmented, first segment yellow and rest of segments black in colour. Rostrum is 4 segmented and yellow. On ventral side body is yellow in colour with punctures on lateral side. Abdomen is completely black. Membrane is yellow at the internal angle with a median transverse brown suffusion and hyaline at the apex.

 Adult
 Egg
 5th instar
 Feeding on larva

Karnataka & Bengal.

Predatory on lepidopteran eggs, neonate larvae of lepidopteran insects, thrips, aphids, etc. The common laboratory host, Sitotroga cerealella (Olivier) could be used for rearing of this predator. It inhabits the leaf-margins of roll galls on the leaves of Ficus benghalensis and jamun.

Factsheet preparation and identification courtesy by Dr. Richa Varshney, Scientist, ICAR-NBAIR.

(Uploaded on 21.03.2017)