Rearing the green-belly stink bug, Diceraeus furcatus (Fabricius, 1775) (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae) in laboratory

The green belly stink bug, Diceraeus furcatus (Fabricius, 1775) (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) is an emergent Neotropical crop pest, whose status has progressively changed in the last few years. Diceraeus furcatus is a polyphagous stink bug and its feeding behavior damages corn seedlings, wheat and oat spikes, and soybean pods, causing economic losses. Establishing stock populations of D. furcatus is difficult, and a suitable rearing method is lacking. The establishment of stock colonies is essential to study many aspects of a species, especially economically important ones. In this paper, a method to keep viable stock populations of D. furcatus in the laboratory is described. The periodic asepsis of cages (48 hours), periodical change of diet (48 hours), and mixed diet consisting of bean pods plus peanut and soybean grains, allowed us to obtain adequate biological parameters and population increase of this species. Fertility (251 eggs/female), fecundity (225.91 nymphs/female), and R0 (43 times of increase) show a consistent increase in the population. Additionally, adult survivorship/longevity and weight support the suitability of the method applied. The establishment of stock populations is the first step for a mass-rearing method that is essential to the development of biological control programs and other studies on this emergent pest.