plant bug
- noun
- /plænt bʌg/
:
chinche de planta
- Farmers often use insecticides to manage plant bugs that threaten their vegetable harvests.
- a tarnished plant bug
Examples
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The goal is to find out if controlling weeds early in the season can prevent damaging numbers of plant bugs from invading cotton later on.
Academic text (1999) -
They reduced weed density in the treated areas, causing a sharp reduction in tarnished plant bugs compared to untreated areas.
Academic text (1999) -
The wasps attack only the eggs, and plant bug eggs are scarce until spring.
Academic text (1999) -
The tarnished plant bug doesn't have anything else to blame for its notorious reputation.
Academic text (1999) -
Starkville scientists are working on artificial diets for the tarnished plant bug and some of its predators.
Academic text (1999) -
Farmers have been able to cut down on sprayings for boll weevils, but they would have to continue or resume spraying for plant bugs.
Academic text (1999) -
Williams and others at Stoneville have identified several plant bug predators, including minute pirate bugs, green lacewings, and big-eyed bugs.
Academic text (1999) -
"The tarnished plant bug is the only major cotton pest for which we don't have a sex pheromone," Snodgrass says.
Academic text (1999) -
In August 1993, Snodgrass discovered that tarnished plant bugs, Lygus lineolaris, had become resistant to pyrethroids, a class of insecticides commonly used to control them.
Academic text (1999) -
Concern about this cotton pest—which cost $75 million last year in control measures alone—has led to the ARS areawide tarnished plant bug project.
Academic text (1999)
Synonyms
1
6.7
A small bright insect that feeds on plant juices, often on leaves
A small bug that lives on plants and often eats their leaves
A small insect that feeds on plants, usually on leaves
Small soft insects that feed on plant juices and can damage crops
Surface Forms
Morphology
plant + bug
The meaning 'a bug associated with or feeding on plants' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'plant' (a plant) with 'bug' (a small insect): a straightforward noun+noun modifier pattern. This compositional pattern is cross-linguistically common and follows expected English compound semantics, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Plant bug The compound noun plant bug comes from the simple image of a small bug that lives on a plant and feeds on its juices, so the term means 'a small insect that feeds on plant juices'.