Mr Simon Ong1
1Department of Primary Industries, Tourism and Trade, Katherine, Australia
Biography:
Simon Ong is an Entomologist working at the Katherine Research Station, Northern Territory, Australia. He carries out insect diagnostics and integrated pest management research on behalf of the Cropping Group; primarily in cotton and other broadacre and pasture crops. He has 10 years of experience in various aspects of northern Australian entomology including forest health surveillance, exotic pest monitoring, freshwater invertebrate survey and insect rearing. As one of very few entomologists living in the region, Simon has previously reported on novel insect pests of plantation forestry, as well as wholly undescribed species found during the course of his work.
Abstract:
The False Cotton Stainer (Aulacosternum nigrorubrum) (Dallas) is an occasional boll-sucking pest of cotton that is also known to feed on other plants in the Malvaceae family including Hibiscus spp. The insect is locally abundant in cotton-growing regions of the Australia’s Northern Territory, and it occurs alongside and/or outnumber the common cotton stainer bugs (Dysdercus spp.) that bear a visual similarity. This presentation offers a convenient guide to distinguishing A. nigrorubrum from its lookalikes – Dysdercus cingulatus (Fabricius), D. sidae (Montrouzier) and Graptostethus servus (Fabricius), and it outlines aspects of its impact; phenology, behaviour, reproduction and immature stages in cotton, so as to prevent misidentification and accurately guide the management decisions. There is very little published literature on the impact of A. nigrorubrum in isolation and further exploration of its impact on Australian cotton, as well as a re-examination of available literature on Dysdercus spp. is recommended to consider the potential for past misidentification and the resulting effect on experimental results, particularly under field conditions.