Abstract
Spissistilus festinus [Say, 1830] (Hemiptera: Membracidae) is a well-known pest of leguminous crops and a more recently described pest of grapevine due to its ability to transmit grapevine red blotch virus, an economic threat to grape production. Legumes (family Fabaceae), unlike grapevines (Vitis vinifera L.), are preferred feeding and reproductive hosts for S. festinus. Here, we analyzed the development and behavior of S. festinus on snap beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) in comparison to alfalfa (Medicago sativa) and grapevines, with an emphasis on colony establishment and population growth. Snap beans supported all stages of S. festinus development, promoting feeding, reproduction, and colony establishment, as well as supporting a faster life cycle, particularly on detached trifoliates in controlled environmental chambers, compared with alfalfa. Moreso, social aggregation of S. festinus adults was observed on snap bean plants with the petiole as a preferred feeding site. A preference toward grapevine petioles was also seen, though their survival and aggregation behaviors drastically declined on this nonlegume host. Dissecting the alimentary canal of S. festinus revealed more orange, refractive oil droplets, and air bubbles in specimens from grapevine compared to specimens from snap bean or alfalfa, suggesting possible disruptions in digestive processing or nutritional deficiencies with the former host. Together, our findings highlight snap bean as an ideal host for rearing populations of S. festinus to be used in grapevine red blotch virus transmission studies.