Nezara viridula ( L .) 381
7.4.5 Host Plant Associations
Nezara viridula is highly polyphagous (Tables 7.4 and 7.5). Although this species prefers leguminous
plant taxa (i.e., members of the Fabaceae; Table 7. 5), noncultivated herbaceous plants, other cultivated
crops (including fruit and nut trees), ornamentals, and noncultivated trees can be exploited, or utilized,
throughout the year. However, all exploited plant species may not meet the definition of a “host plant”
(Smaniotto and Panizzi 2015). That is, Smaniotto and Panizzi (2015) proposed the term “associated
plant” in lieu of “host plant” to recognize plant species utilized by N. viridula, rationalizing that “host
plant” sensu stricto is defined as a host where an insect species can feed, reproduce, and seek shelter
within. They concluded that “...the ideal host plant, the one to fulfill the three features [i.e., feeding,
reproduction, and shelter within], is seldom encountered by pentatomids.” Thus, as further clarified
below, “associated plant” (or appropriate variant) is a more accurate term, and the term will be incorpo-
rated henceforth.
Our approach in identifying plant species associated with Nezara viridula is similar to Smaniotto and
Panizzi (2015) because, in addition to the well-documented reproductive hosts, we include transient hosts
(i.e., plants used in the absence of key hosts) and hosts used as overwintering habitat. This approach is
100806040Winter survival,%Winter survival,%200
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8y = 1.117x + 0.3303
r^2 = 0.811
P = 0.00571.010080604020(^085)
Green
n =1 1
Intermediate
67
Russet
Color
Proportion of females with
russet and intermediate coloration
B
A
<0.0001
n.s. n.s.
FIGURE 7.13 Effect of coloration on winter survival (from 1 December 2006 to 1 April 2007) of female Nezara viridula
in a combined outdoor and simulated warming experiment in Kyoto, Japan. A, The relationship between winter survival
and proportion of russet and intermediately colored females. The proportion of russet and intermediately colored females
in each series (= experimental cohort) (shown as open circles) was calculated on 1 December as the number of russet and
intermediately colored females in each series divided by the total number of all nonreproductive females (irrespective of
their color) in each series. All series and treatments in which females survived the winter are included. The linear regres-
sion line and statistics after arcsine transformation are shown (all series and treatments combined; P of χ^2 test is shown).
B, Winter survival in different color groups of nonreproductive females. Total numbers of these females of each color (n)
are shown below the axis. See text for details. (From D. L. Musolin, Physiological Entomology 37: 309–322, 2012, with
permission.)