Diet

• Adults and nymphs: Primarily plant-feeding, using their piercing-sucking mouthparts to feed on developing fruits, seeds, flowers and other plant tissues.

• L. zonatus is highly polyphagous, feeding on a very broad range of cultivated and wild plants.

• Feeding on developing fruit and seeds can cause fruit abortion, seed malformation and reduced crop quality.

Range

• Leptoglossus zonatus is a leaf-footed bug (Coreidae) in the subfamily Coreinae, tribe Anisoscelini.

• It is widespread in Mexico, including tropical regions suitable for its many host plants.

• It is occasionally sighted in Zihua, where the warm climate and abundance of fruiting and seed-producing plants provide excellent habitat.

Habitat

• Found in tropical dry forest, tropical deciduous forest, woodland, scrub, agricultural fields, orchards, gardens and urban vegetation.

• Adults and nymphs are especially likely around fruiting and seed-producing plants.

• Around Zihua, look on fruit trees, flowering shrubs, vines and plants producing pods or seed capsules.

• It can also occur around fallen fruit and seeds and may be encountered on buildings near suitable vegetation.

Size

• Adult length: approximately 17–21 mm (0.67–0.83 in).

• Body elongated and brown to dark brown.

• The hind tibiae have conspicuous flattened, leaf-like expansions, characteristic of leaf-footed bugs.

• The most useful identifying feature is the pale whitish zigzag or broken band across the corium, together with two pale yellow spots on the anterior pronotum.