The Antestia Bug Complex in Africa and Asia 479
The fly family Tachinidae includes various species of the genus Bogosia that are known to be para-
sitoids of Antestia bug adults. The best known and most widely distributed is the species B. rubens
Villeneuve, which has been reared from Antestiopsis thunbergii ghesquierei and A. intricata collected
on coffee in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, DRC, Rwanda and Ethiopia.
The strepsipteran Corioxenos antestiae Blair (Corioxenidae) also is a parasitoid of Antestia bugs in the
adult stage. The host range includes most of the Antestiopsis species of economic importance. For exam-
ple, C. antestiae has been collected on coffee in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Cameroon
(Kirkpatrick 1937; Greathead 1966b, 1971; Abebe 1999; Mbondji Mbondji 2001).
10.5 Damage to Coffee
10.5.1 Direct Damage on Flower Buds, Berries, and Shoots
Antestia bugs cause a considerable amount of feeding damage. Feeding on flower buds results in
browning or blackening of buds causing failure to set fruit (Le Pelley 1968, Mugo 1994). Loss of
flowers is significant when high infestations of Antestia bugs occur during the onset of rains (Waller
et al. 2007). Severe infestations may even prevent the tree from flowering (Wrigley 1988). Feeding
on young green berries results in premature fruit drop. The berries are shed by the production of an
abscission layer on the stock leading to a significant crop loss, which is difficult to assess (Foucart and
Brion 1959).
Feeding on well-developed berries results in different types of damage, all of them affecting strongly
the gustative quality of coffee beans (Ribeyre and Avelino 2012). This damage is often difficult to
detect on berries and is visible only after the coffee washing process when beans are stripped and
cleaned of parchment. Berries damaged by these bugs usually results in beans with crater-like depres-
sions (Leblanc 1993). If the feeding lesions are infected by Eremothecium fungi, the beans become
brown or black and sometimes show the damage known as “brown zebra coffee beans” (Ribeyre and
Avelino 2012).
Developed leaves in the field also are attacked by Antestia bugs; however, in the complete absence
of flowers or berries, the shoots are preferred over leaves. When young leaves at the growing points
are damaged, they become scarred and distorted. Multiple branching of shoots always is associated
with Antestia damage where in severe cases this leads to “witches-broom” effect. The first effect of
the feeding of Antestiopsis on the shoot is marked by a reduction in growth that is accompanied by
a shortening of internodes. This is followed by a duplication or multiplication of branches as a result
of the feeding on the growing point, producing a typical bunchy or matted growth (Le Pelley 1968,
Wrigley 1988).
10.5.2 Microbe Transmission
Entry of pathogenic bacteria or fungi into the plant tissue through insect feeding wounds is common
(e.g., Mitchell 2004). In this same manner, Antestia bugs may provide fungi with access to berries during
feeding (Le Pelley 1942). Fungal species involved are Eremothecium coryli and Ashbya (=Eremothecium)
gossypii (Wallace 1931, 1932; cited in Le Pelley 1942). However, the exact transmission mechanism,
direct or passive introduction, has yet to be elucidated. The characteristic injury symptom of these fungal
infections is bean rot. These fungi have been observed in berries with feeding lesions of Antestiopsis
thunbergii and A. intricata (Mitchell 2004).
Recent research by Matsuura et al. (2014) identified bacterial symbionts associated with Antestiopsis
thunbergii. They characterized a gammaproteobacterial gut symbiont as the primary symbiotic asso-
ciate of an obligate nature for A. thunbergii, and three facultative symbionts in the genera Sodalis,
Spiroplasma, and Rickettsia. J. Carayon (personal communication) suggested that symbionts might play
a crucial part in Antestia bug alimentation. He hypothesized that the behavior of newly hatched first
instars, which usually stay together on the egg choria for 1 to 3 days before dispersing and beginning to
feed, may facilitate the acquisition of these symbionts from the female adult to her progeny.