''Taylorilygus apicalis'' or broken-backed bug is a species of

plant bug The Miridae are a large and diverse insect family at one time known by the taxonomic synonym Capsidae. Species in the family may be referred to as capsid bugs or "mirid bugs". Common names include plant bugs, leaf bugs, and grass bugs. It is th ...

in the family

Miridae The Miridae are a large and diverse insect family at one time known by the taxonomic synonym Capsidae. Species in the family may be referred to as capsid bugs or "mirid bugs". Common names include plant bugs, leaf bugs, and grass bugs. It is th ...

.Catalogue of life
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Distribution

This species is widespread in most of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

, in the Afrotropical realm, in the

Australasian realm The Australasian realm is a biogeographic realm that is coincident with, but not (by some definitions) the same as, the geographical region of Australasia. The realm includes Australia, the island of New Guinea (comprising Papua New Guinea an ...

, in the

Neotropical realm The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bi ...

, in the

Oriental realm The Indomalayan realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms. It extends across most of South and Southeast Asia and into the southern parts of East Asia. Also called the Oriental realm by biogeographers, Indomalaya spreads all over the ...

, in North America and in

Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a region, geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern Hemisphere, Eastern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of ...

Description

''Taylorilygus apicalis'' can reach a length of about . These very common bugs are usually light green, but may also be tan, with mainly brown outer wings and brown flecks on the inner wings. Wing tips appear bent down at 45° (hence the common name of ''broken-backed bugs''). The eyes are white or light-colored. They show a very slender pronotal collar and an elaborately spined extra projection of the left paramere.

Biology

These

s are polyphagous, but they mainly feed on ''

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae ...

'' species, ''

Anthemis ''Anthemis'' is a genus of aromatic flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, closely related to ''Chamaemelum'', and like that genus, known by the common name chamomile; some species are also called dog-fennel or mayweed. ''Anthemis'' are nativ ...

'' and ''

Salix Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...

'' species. The broken-backed bugs are vectors of a phytoplasma-caused

phyllody Phyllody is the abnormal development of floral parts into leafy structures. It is generally caused by phytoplasma or virus infections, though it may also be because of environmental factors that result in an imbalance in plant hormones. Phy ...

in species of '' Parthenium''.Tessema, T.; Obermeier, C.; Einhorn, G.; Seemüller, E.; Büttner, C. (2004)
"Phyllody Disease of Parthenium Weed in Ethiopia"
Pest Management Journal of Ethiopia. 8: 39–50.

Bibliography

* Nishida, Gordon M., ed. (2002) ''Hawaiian Terrestrial Arthropod Checklist'', 4th ed., Bishop Museum Technical Reports no. 22 * Roques A., Kenis M., Lees D., Lopez-Vaamonde C., Rabitsch W., Rasplus J.-Y., Roy D., eds. 2010. ''BioRisk 4 Special Issue''; 2 vols., 1028 pp. * Schuh, R.T. 2002–2013. ''On-line Systematic Catalog of Plant Bugs (Insecta: Heteroptera: Miridae)''. * Schwartz, Michael D., and G. G. E. Scudder (2000) ''Miridae (Heteroptera) new to Canada, with some taxonomic changes, Journal of the New York Entomological Society'', vol. 108, no. 3-4

References

Insects described in 1861 Mirini Hemiptera of Asia Hemiptera of Australia {{Miridae-stub