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  Online Guide to Chek Jawa
coral rubble
 
Cotton-stainer bugs
Dysdercus decussatus
Family Pyrrhocoridae
click for enlarged image
 
Cotton-stainer bugs are harmless insects that eat the seeds of the Sea hibiscus. Immature nymphs are smaller, wingless and have red bodies, while adults have a white cross on their black wing covers. They usually hang out in groups under the leaves of the Sea hibiscus.

Cotton-stainer Babies: The bugs tend to form groups, which help them find mates. Small, pale eggs are laid singly on the food plant or dropped on the ground near the food plant. These hatch in 5-8 days into wingless nymphs which lack the cross-markings on their backs (they do not have a larval stage). Hatchlings gather near their egg shells, then continue to feed in groups. They moult five times before reaching maturity, whereupon they get their wings and characteristic cross-markings.

Human uses: They got their name because many Dysdercus species transfer microorganisms that stain the cotton bolls that they prefer to feed on. Feeding on the cotton bolls not only stains them an indelible yellow as plant sap seeps out of the puncture wound, and microorganisms and fungus grows at the site. The feeding habit also damages the fibres by cutting them, and affects the growth of the cotton boll. Some species also damage other agricultural crops such as peaches. 		 
quick facts
About 1cm, common on fruiting Sea Hibiscus plants

Classification:
OrderHemiptera
Class Insecta
Phylum Arthropoda
 
Links
Dr Harold Grau's Cotton Stainer Home Page on the Christopher Newport University website: some interesting findings from research on St. Andrew's cotton stainer, Dysdercus andreae.
Texas Agricultural Extension Service on the Texas A&M University System website: very slow to load, but lots of photos of other cotton pests. Has a fact sheet on Dysdercus suterellus.
Cotton stainers on the Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve website: brief fact sheet.

Other references
  • Ng, Peter K. L. & N. Sivasothi, 1999. A Guide to the Mangroves of Singapore II (Animal Diversity). Singapore Science Centre. 168 pp. online version
 

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