White Margined Burrowing Bug

Tiny black bug is a White-Margined Burrowing Bug (Sehirus cinctus). That is a very large name for such a small bug.

They measure up to 1/4 of an inch, and are glossy black, although some specimens may be dark reddish-brown, with a distinctive white border around the body. This is the only species within this genus in North America.

Look for them in woodlands, gardens, and yards. They are frequently found on weedy plants like henbit, and dead-nettle. In my own garden I find them on a wide variety of plants, but they seem especially fond of Lambs Ear. They feed on the seeds of plants in the mint family.

The adults will overwinter in leaf-litter on the ground and become active again when spring returns. After mating, the female will lay her eggs in a shallow depression that she will provision with the seeds from various plants in the mint family.Peanut, cotton, strawberry, pepper, spinach, and many other cultivated and wild plants can serve as hosts for burrower bugs.

Life Cycle : Burrower bugs are small black or brown insects that are extremely mobile. Their wings are partially hardened near the wing base and overlap at rest. The burrower bug has a small head that bears a pair of multisegmented antennae and needle-like mouthparts.

The tibia (long shaft of insect leg) has numerous spines. Research from South Carolina and Texas indicates two peaks in population: May to June and again in July to August. Light traps have been effectively used to detect and forecast field populations. Females oviposit near roots and pods by depositing single eggs in soil.

Damages:Burrower bugs have been controlled with conventional tillage practices and common use of soil insecticides; however, in conservation tillage systems, burrower bugs can become a sporadic pest that feeds on maturing peanut kernels late in the production season. Adults and nymphs have piercing-sucking mouthparts that are inserted into maturing kernels during feeding.

Peanut kernels develop light yellow to dark brown lesions as a result of this feeding; the damage is called pitting. Extensive feeding causes loss of kernel weight and decreases the number of sound kernels. Research indicates that 30 percent of kernel feeding is associated with a 1.2 percent increase in damaged kernels. Direct examination of pods is the most reliable method of sampling.

white-margined burrower bugs on early seedling cotton . The nymphs look like small robust stink bugs with black heads and thoraxes and bright red abdomens with black areas around the three upper scent glands and black-spotted abdominal margins. Although their high numbers look alarming, burrower bugs seldom cause economic damage to cotton, corn and soybean seedlings. It’s not unusual to see 5 to 10 or more of these small insects around a single plant.

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