Cotton stainer bugs (Dysdercus)

Cotton stainer bug (Dysdercus) is a genus in Pyrrhocoridae, the imago and nymph phases have black and red colors, three pairs of limbs of the same length and differ only in the size of the limbs of each segment, the limbs on the femur are slightly larger than the tarsus and tibia.

Dysdercus has a mouth consisting of a rostum and a stylet. The rostume is located on the anterior part of the head, is elongated and segmented as a wrapper for the stylet. This sucker is formed by the food tract and salivary tract. The nymphs undergo several molting processes to become imago.

The species in Dysdercus consume plant fluids wherein the nymphs perform in groups, whereas the imago does more individually. They trample the stems of plants regularly and form long rows.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Class: Insecta
Subclass: Pterygota
Order: Hemiptera
Suborder: Heteroptera
Infraorder: Pentatomomorpha
Superfamily: Pyrrhocoroidea
Family: Pyrrhocoridae
Genus: Dysdercus

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