tarnished plant bug
- noun
- /ˈtɑrnɪʃt plænt bʌg/
- Specialized
:
chinche de planta tarnished
- Research shows that the tarnished plant bug feeds on various fruits, leading to significant agricultural losses.
Examples
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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) -
They reduced weed density in the treated areas, causing a sharp reduction in tarnished plant bugs compared to untreated areas.
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) -
Photo (color): A tarnished plant bug, Lygus lineolaris, on clover.
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) -
"One way of doing this is targeting our efforts when the tarnished plant bugs are on their spring weed hosts, before they move into cotton." Parasitic Wasps and Other Insect Allies
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) -
Entomologist Gordon Snodgrass checks the growth of tarnished plant bugs in a rearing room at the USDA-ARS research facility in Stoneville, Mississippi.
Academic text (1999) -
Photo (color): Before applying herbicide to eliminate the weeds, entomologists Gordon Snodgrass (left) and Bill Scott monitor tarnished plant bug populations on their weed hosts.
Academic text (1999)
Synonyms
A small insect in North America that damages crops like cotton and strawberries
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun compound is partly compositional: 'plant bug' clearly signals an insect associated with plants, so a learner who knows 'plant' and 'bug' would infer it is an insect affecting plants. However, 'tarnished' is ambiguous (could describe the bug's appearance or imply damage/spoilage) and the precise sense — a specific species that causes crop losses — is not fully predictable from the constituents, so full comprehension requires prior exposure.
Etymology
Tarnished plant bug gets its name from how the insect looks and what it eats: its wings have dull, brown patches so it seems 'tarnished', and it is a plant bug because it feeds on many crops. So the name tells us it is a plant-eating bug that can damage fruit and other plants.
