Lygus

The genus Lygus includes over 40 species of plant-feeding insects in the family Miridae. The term lygus bug is used for any member of genus Lygus.

==Species== At one time, nearly 200 species were classified as genus Lygus, but most of those have since been reclassified into new or existing genera. Species within this genus include: Lygus abroniae Lygus aeratus Lygus atriflavus Lygus atritibialis Lygus borealis Lygus bradleyi Lygus ceanothi Lygus convexicollis Lygus elisus Lygus gemellatus Lygus hesperus Lygus humeralis Lygus keltoni Lygus lineolaris Lygus lupini Lygus maritimus Lygus mexicanus Lygus oregonae Lygus perplexus Lygus plagiatus Lygus potentillae Lygus pratensis Lygus punctatus Lygus robustus Lygus rolfsi Lygus rubroclarus Lygus rubrosignatus Lygus rufidorsus Lygus rugulipennis Lygus scudderi Lygus shulli Lygus solidaginis Lygus striatus Lygus unctuosus Lygus wagneri Lygus vanduzeei Lygus varius The tarnished plant bug (Lygus lineolaris) feeds on over half of all commercially grown crop plants, but favors cotton, alfalfa, beans, stone fruits, and conifer seedlings. This bug can be found across North America, from northern Canada to southern Mexico. The western tarnished plant bug (Lygus hesperus) is a very serious pest of cotton, strawberries, and seed crops such as alfalfa. The European tarnished plant bug (Lygus rugulipennis) is distributed throughout Europe, where it will feed on over 400 types of crop plant from peach trees to wheat to lettuce.