Hemipteran Pests of Sugarcane in North America

Piercing-sucking herbivores (Insecta: Hemiptera) represent one of the greatest threats to agricultural production worldwide. Hemipteran pests directly injure plants as well as vector disease-causing plant pathogens. Production of sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) in North America is impacted by a complex of Hemiptera including the sugarcane aphid, Melanaphis sacchari Zehntner (Aphididae); yellow sugarcane aphid, Sipha flava (Forbes) (Aphididae); West Indian canefly, Saccharosydne saccharivora (Westwood) (Delphacidae); sugarcane delphacid, Perkinsiella saccharicida Kirkaldy (Delphacidae); and sugarcane lace bug, Leptodictya tabida (Herric-Schaeffer) (Tingidae). None of these pests is consistently damaging to large amounts of sugarcane acreage, but regional outbreaks are common. The biology, ecology, and pest management of these insects are discussed with emphasis on North America sugarcane production.