Hycleus pustulatus

Hycleus pustulatus is a species of blister beetle found in India, Sri Lanka, China and Java.[1][2][3][4]

Hycleus pustulatus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Coleoptera
Infraorder: Cucujiformia
Family: Meloidae
Genus: Hycleus
Species:
H. pustulatus
Binomial name
Hycleus pustulatus
(Thunberg, 1821)
Synonyms
  • Meloe pustulams Thunberg, 1791
  • Mylabris pustulata Olivier, 1795
  • Mylabris humeralis Walker, 1858

Adults feed mainly on flowers from a wide range of plant families. The first larval instar is an active triungulin form that is a predator of soft insects such as aphids. While the young are often beneficial to crops by suppressing other plant feeders, the adults can be a problem when present in large numbers. Flower feeding leads to lower yield and this can be a problem in some leguminous crops. They are however easily controlled by manual collection.

Description

Body length is about 15.4 to 32.8 mm. Head and pronotum with moderately coarse deep and dense punctures. Eyes reniform. Maxillary palpi consists with strongly compressed, triangular apical segment. Pronotum has a middle region with depression along median impressed line. Elytra with moderately coarse, moderately deep and deeply punctures. Elytra pubescence is short, very dense on black area, but sparse on red area. Basal region consists with two reddish spots. These spots become rectangular in shape from dorsally and laterally. Ventrum moderately coarsely punctate, opaque. Male has deep, round emarginate sixth visible abdominal sternum, in which female is entire or feebly emarginate.[5]

Biology

It is a phytophagous beetle that exhibits polyphagy. Adult is considered as a major pest for the pigeon pea. It feeds on flowers and developing pods of the many agricultural crops such as Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, Pavonia zeylanica, Helicteres isora, Cassia occidentalis, Acacia caesia, Cleome viscosa, Zea mays, Mangifera indica, Murraya koenigii and Tridax procumbens. Feeding activity is intense during the months of July, August, September and October with flowering seasons of many plants. However, they show stable activity in year around.[6][7]

It is an economically important species due to the ability to biosynthesize potent defensive blistering agent cantharidin.[8][9]

References
  1. "The National Red List 2012 of Sri Lanka; Conservation Status of the Fauna and Flora". Ministry of Environment in Sri Lanka. Retrieved 2021-07-25.
  2. "Mylabris orientalis Marseul, 1872". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2021-07-28.
  3. "IRMNG - Mylabris orientalis Marseul, 1872". www.irmng.org. Retrieved 2021-07-28.
  4. "Mylabris pustulata (blister beetle, arhap)". www.cabi.org. Retrieved 2021-07-28.
  5. "The Blister Beetle (Meloidae) of Sri Lanka". Ceylon Journal of Science (Biological Sciences) 13(1&2):203-251. Retrieved 2021-07-26.
  6. "A STUDY ON MORPHOLOGY AND FEEDING ECOLOGY OF THE BLISTER BEETLE, MYLABRIS PUSTULATA THUNBERG (COLEOPTERA: MELOIDAE)". Advances in Pollen Spore Research Vol. XXXIV (2016) : 127-137. Retrieved 2021-07-26.
  7. Rashmi Joshi; Gaur, Neeta (2019-09-10). "First report of Blister beetle, Mylabris pustulata Thunberg (Meloidae: Coleoptera) in maize fields from Sarson village of Almora District, Uttarakhand (India)". Journal of Applied and Natural Science. 11 (3): 752–754. doi:10.31018/jans.v11i3.2162. S2CID 203881400. Retrieved 2021-07-28.
  8. Wu, Yuan-Ming; Li, Jiang; Chen, Xiang-Sheng (2018-03-01). "Draft genomes of two blister beetles Hycleus cichorii and Hycleus phaleratus". GigaScience. 7 (3): 1–7. doi:10.1093/gigascience/giy006. PMC 5905561. PMID 29444297.
  9. Till, Jonathan S.; Majmudar, Bhagirath N. (April 1981). "Cantharidin Poisoning". Southern Medical Journal. 74 (4): 444–447. doi:10.1097/00007611-198104000-00019. PMID 7221663. S2CID 29589945. Retrieved 2021-07-27.

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