This major agricultural pest is one of the causes of those cat-faced strawberries you see in your garden or in the field. Cat-faced? Think misshapened, deformed or irregularly shaped berries.
Catfacing occurs when the young seeds (achenes) fail to stimulate the fruit (receptacle) to grow.
Lygus bugs attack herbs, vegetable crops, commercial flower plants, fruit trees and nursery stock.
Enter Frances Sivakoff, doctoral candidate in entomology at UC Davis. She'll discuss her research on lygus bugs from 12:10 to 1 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 19 in 122 Briggs Hall, UC Davis.
Her topic: "Pest Management from a Landscape Perspective: Understanding the Factors that Influence the Distribution of Lygus hesperus.”
Sivakoff, who studies with major professor Jay Rosenheim, investigated the dispersal ability of lygus bugs. Her results support the “already established importance of safflower, alfalfa, cotton and uncultivated agricultural land on Lygus population dynamics."“
Her research also "demonstrated the importance of several other crops in California’s San Joaquin Valley that have not traditionally been considered for the management of Lygus."
Entomology professor James R. Carey plans to webcast the seminar and then post it online on UCTV.
So soon, coming to a computer near you, lygus bug research!
Attached Images:
Lygus bug (Lygus hesperus) is a major agricultural pest. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)