Leptoglossus[Guérin-Méneville (1831) Crustaces, Arachnides et Insectes. In: Duperrey LI, Voyage autour du monde, exécuté par ordre du Roi, sur la corvette de Sa Majesté "La Coquille", pendant les années 1822-1825. Zoologie 2(2): 12 pl., 9 figs.] is a genus of Hemiptera in the Coreidae family and the tribe Anisoscelini. Species are distributed throughout the Americas, with some records in eastern & southern Asia and Europe (mostly introductions).[ Coreoidea Species File: genus Leptoglossus Guérin-Méneville, 1831 (retrieved 21 January 2020)] Several species, such as Leptoglossus occidentalis, are economic pests of agricultural crops.[Schaefer, C. W. and A. R. Panizzi. 2000. Heteroptera of Economic Importance. CRC Press. ] Like members of some other genera in the family, these bugs have leaflike dilations of the Arthropod leg. Several species are of economic importance, and one species, L. chilensis, has been reported to bite humans.[Faúndez, E. I. & M. A. Carvajal. 2011. Primer registro de una picadura de Leptoglossus chilensis (Spinola, 1852) (Hemíptera: Heteroptera: Coreidae) en un ser humano. Boletín de Biodiversidad de Chile 6: 22-25.]
Behavior
Sexual Dimorphism and Courtship
Species
Leptoglossus australis engage in sexual dimorphism by the functional morphology of their femurs.
Members of
L. australis sexes vary based on length, width, and number of spines on their femur.
In males, the it's most common for the widest part of their femur to be located at the third spine, while in females the widest part of their femur is commonly located at the third spine.
Variation of L. australis additionally lies in the length of the femur, where the males have a larger femoral length compared to the females.
Species Leptoglossus phyllopus engages in sexual dimorphism using a ventral abdominal gland only found in sexually mature males.
Symbionts
Species
Leptoglossus zonatus and
Leptoglossus phyllopus engage in symbiotic relationships with the pathogenic bacteria,
Burkholderia. Species with have the symbiotic bacteria experienced a higher fitness and were larger compared to species without the symbiont.
is not transmitted through reproduction, so offspring of
Leptoglossus must find and consume the bacteria.
This is done by ingesting soil containing
Burkholderia, where the symbiont will colonize in the midgut region.
Despite the advantage
Burkholderia provides to
Leptoglossus, it is currently unknown what the bacteria provides to cause this increase in fitness.
Feeding and diet
Species
Leptoglossus occidentalis is famous for feeding
Conifer seeds in mountain regions throughout the globe.
At maturity,
L. occidentalis diet shifts towards ripe fruits, such as blackberries.
Feeding is accomplished by salivary enzymes ejected from their stylets then sucking out the nutrients.
The consumption of coniferous seeds has caused a reported 83% decrease in
Pinus contorta seeds, making
L. occidentalis an economic pest.
Economic Pests
The western conifer seed bug,
Leptoglossus occidentalis, is a very dangerous pest to European coniferous trees.
Even if lightly consumed by
L. occidentalis,
germination capabilities of coniferous seeds become drastically reduced.
In southwestern French seed orchards, the economic damage was less than 25%, but for natural alpine pine seeds there was a 70% impact.
Studies have confirmed that there is damage patterns with mature cone seeds, making
L. occidentalis a dangerous pest to seed orchards.
Attempts have been made to combat
L. occidentalis, such as using predators of
Leptoglossus, Ant or
Orthoptera, to hunt the pests.
Another attempt was to use species that can parasitize
Leptoglossus eggs, such as
Anastatus bifasciatus and
Ooencyrtus.
The parasitic species appeared to be efficient at reducing the
Leptoglossus population, but not effective enough to fully suppress
L. occidentalis.
Species
The current list of described species and subspecies includes:
[Brailovsky, Harry. 2014. Illustrated key for identification of the species included in the genus Leptoglossus (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Coreidae: Coreina: Anisoscelini), and descriptions of five new species and new synonyms. Zootaxa 3794(1): 143-178.][Schaefer, C. W., R. J. Packauskas, and K. Bu. 2008. A new species of Leptoglossus (Hemiptera: Coreidae: Coreinae: Anisoscelini) from Brazil. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 110(1): 61-66.]
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L. absconditus
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L. alatus
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L. arenalensis
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L. ashmeadi
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L. balteatus
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L. brevirostris
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L. caicosensis
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L. cartogoensis
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L. chilensis
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L. chilensis chilensis
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L. concaviusculus
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L. cinctus
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L. clypealis
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L. concolor
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L. confusus
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L. conspersus
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L. corculus
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L. crassicornus
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L. crestalis
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L. dearmasi
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L. dentatus
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L. dialeptus
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L. digitiformis
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L. dilaticollis - type species (Central & South America)
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L. egeri
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L. fasciatus
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L. fasciolatus
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L. flavosignatus
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L. frankei
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L. fulvicornis
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L. gonagra
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L. grenadensis
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L. harpagon
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L. hesperus
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L. humeralis
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L. impensus
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L. impictipennis
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L. impictus
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L. ingens
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L. jacquelinae
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L. katiae
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L. lambayaquinus
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L. lineosus
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L. lonchoides
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L. macrophyllus
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L. manausensis
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L. neovexillatus
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L. nigropearlei
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L. occidentalis
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L. oppositus
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L. pallidivenosus
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L. phyllopus
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L. polychromus
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L. quadricollis
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L. rubrescens
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L. sabanensis
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L. stigma
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L. subauratus
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L. talamancanus
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L. tetranotatus
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L. usingeri
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L. venustus
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L. zonatus
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