Preference of the Redbanded Stink Bug (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) for Selected Spring Host Plants

The redbanded stink bug, Piezodorus guildinii (Westwood), has emerged as a major stink bug pest of soybean in Louisiana during the last decade. In the spring, this species is usually found in leguminous hosts where populations can build up before migrating to soybean fields in the summer. However, studies looking at the preference of this species to the potential spring leguminous hosts under the natural conditions are lacking. Field studies were conducted in different geographical locations of Louisiana from 2013 to 2015 to evaluate preference of P. guildinii to six different leguminous cover crops: crimson clover, (Trifolium incarnatum L.), cardinal red clover, (Trifolium pratense L.), Austrian winter pea, (Pisum sativum L.), berseem clover, (Trifolium alexandrinum L.), hairy vetch, (Vicia villosa Roth), and white clover, (Trifolium repens L.). Our study showed that the odds of finding both adult and nymph P. guildinii was significantly higher in crimson clover followed by white clover, while the odds of finding both adult and nymph P. guildinii was significantly lower in other hosts. Therefore, crimson and white clovers are the preferred hosts as well as the important reproductive host plants of P. guildinii in the spring season.