SEASONAL OCCURRENCE OF PLANT BUGS (HEMIPTERA: MIRIDAE) ON OILSEED FLAX (LINACEAE) AND THEIR EFFECT ON YIELD

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Abstract
Plant bugs, Lygus Kelton, damage many crops in western Canada (Kelton 1980; Wise and Lamb 1998; Wise et al. 2000), the common species in Manitoba being Lygus lineolaris (Palisot de Beauvois), Lygus borealis (Kelton), and Lygus elisus Van Duzee (Gerber and Wise 1995). Reports of plant bugs on flax, Linum usitatissimum L., are limited to an oviposition study (Painter 1927) and anecdotal descriptions of feeding damage in Canada (Beirne 1972) and Europe (Ferguson and Fitt 1991). In western Canada, flax is grown as an oilseed crop on about 600 000 ha annually (Canada Grains Council 1999). The objectives of this study were to determine (i) the species of plant bugs in oilseed flax, (ii) their ability to complete development in flax, (iii) the number of generations they complete, and (iv) the yield loss they cause.