black locust bug

Black locust bug is a small scarlet plant bug. It occurs in the Unites States from Maine to Maryland, west to Minnesota, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, and south along the Appalachian Mountains to northern Georgia. It also occurs in southern Canada from New Brunswick to Ontario.

Nymphs are found probably exclusively on black locust. Adults are active from June through August. They are found nearly everywhere their host plant black locust grows. They disperse and migrate to other nearby shrubbery, eventually returning to a host plant to deposit eggs.

Adults are soft-bodied, elongated, slender, almost parallel-sided, and ¼″ (6.3 to 6.8 mm) in length. This of one of the “pale” scarlet plant bugs. The color is almost always orangish yellow or yellowish orange (pale), rarely reddish, with dark grayish brown to black (dark) areas. The body is covered with silvery, closely appressed hairs mixed with unbranched erect hairs. Females are slightly larger and sometimes slightly more robust than males, but they are otherwise similar in color and hairiness (pubescence).

The head is wider than the base of the plate covering the first segment of the thorax (pronotum). The front of the head is vertical. The compound eyes are large and oval. There are no simple eyes (ocelli). The sides of the upper part of the face (frons) and the top of the head (vertex) are black. There is a well-defined groove (jugal suture) on each cheek (gena) extending from the antennae base to beneath the eye. The beak-like part of the head containing the mouth parts (rostrum) has four segments. It is black, short, and stout. The neck is well defined. The antennae have four segments. They are black, thin, and long, much longer than the head and as long as the entire thickened wing covers (hemelytra). The second segment is considerably thicker than the third.

The pronotum is wider than long and is bell-shaped when viewed from above. A dark area in the middle varies considerably in size and intensity. It may be broad, complete from front to rear, and distinct; narrow, short, and diffuse; or anywhere in between. The exoskeletal plate between the wing bases (scutellum), is large, triangular, and dark.

There are two pairs of wings. The front wings (hemelytra) are longer than the hind wings and a little longer than the body. They are held flat over the body when at rest. The hemelytra have a thickened, leathery part at the base and a thin membranous part at the tip with a clear dividing line between the two. The thickened part is comprised of the narrow area (clavus) behind the scutellum when the wings are closed, and the broad marginal area (corium). At the end of the corium there is a small but distinct triangular area (cuneus). The clavus is mostly dark, pale just at the base. The corium is pale on the outer half, dark on the inner half. The cuneus is entirely pale. The membrane is dark. The veins are dark, not contrasting with the dark membrane.

The legs are mostly black. The first segment (coxa) of each leg is partly pale.

Total length: ¼″ (6.3 to 6.8 mm)

Wherever black locust is found

June through August

Black locust bug breeds on black locust. Eggs are laid in the stems or leaves of a host plant. The eggs overwinter and hatch in the following spring.

Black locust

Plant juices

Sources

29, 30, 82, 83.

Alfredo Colon
8/3/2022

Location: Albany, NY