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Facultative blood-sucking lace bugs, Corythucha sp., in
Romania
ROXANA CICEOI1, ADRIANA RADULOVICI2
1Laboratory of Diagnose for Plant Protection, Research Centre for Study of Food and Agricultural Products Quality,
University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest, Romania, roxana.ciceoi@gmail.com
2Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph, Guelph, Canada
Keywords:Corythucha ciliata, Corythucha arcuata, citizen science, facultative hematophagous insects, DNA barcoding
INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS AND METHODS
CONCLUSIONS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS REFERENCES
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
JOINT ESENIAS AND DIAS SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE
8th ESENIAS WORKSHOP
The earliest mentions of biting and stinging caused by lace bugs, Corythucha sp. date back to the 50s, in the United States of America, but these were not very common. The
first cases of biting in Europe have been mentioned in northern Italy since 2010 and the confirmation of the hematophagous behaviour of the lace bugs was done in 2015 in
France by DNA barcoding.
In Romania C. ciliata was first time reported in 1990 in Craiova and then in 2011 in Sibiu, while C. arcuata was spotted for the first time in 2015 in Arad. In 2017 and 2018, in
many cities across the country, but especially in Bucharest, many citizens, especially children, arrived at the hospital with allergic reactions such as bloating, itching and
reddened skin. Although the scientific mentions are poor, in the online media many references might be found, starting 2011, regarding C. ciliata and C. arcuata, proving that
citizen science is a tool that cannot be neglected. Instead, it should be wisely used. The purpose of our study was to review the information available in the media about the two
pests and to raise few questions about the patterns that determines the insects biting on humans, as well as the possible causes of allergic response. In addition, the first DNA
barcoding trials have been performed and compared with the already existing data in BOLD and NCBI.
*Reviewing the spread of Corythucha sp.in Romania, the information available on the online media was gathered through a deep search with Google engine.
*To identify the possible causes that could make some people more susceptible than others to allergic reactions, a questionnaire was given to people that acknowledged that
were bitten by lace bugs, during the Researchers night, Bucharest edition, in 29 September 2017. The questionnaire had only 20 respondents,
*For the DNA barcoding, 4 specimens of Corythucha sp. were barcoded, of which two kept dry since autumn 2017 and two catched with sticky traps, in March 2018, in a
gerbera crop, in greenhouse. The 658-bp barcode region of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COI) gene (Hebert et al. 2003) was amplified using Lepidoptera
and Folmer primer cocktail (C_LepFolF/C_LepFolR, 1:1) (Hernández-Triana et al. 2014) and sequenced with ABI Hitachi 3730XL DNA analyzer. Traces analysis and
interpretation were performed with CodonCode and Mega7 software.
Reports about lace bugs invasions in Romanian cities
Timisoara –1990.The scientific papers do not mention the fact that Bella Kiss
found the pest in 1990 in Timisoara. The paper was published in „Analele
Banatului”, Ştiinţele Naturii. Vol.II.
Oradea –2011, 2015.The online press is full of references regarding Corythucha
ciliata invasion in Oradea, in 2011. The authors are stating
that in the hot summers, the insect populations develop
very fast, in huge numbers. Newspapers as ebihoreanul.ro,
bihon.ro,agroromania.manager.ro, 2011, etc. were
announcing in September that the Plant Protection
Laboratory of Agriculture Direction Bihor and the
National Phytosanitary Laboratory have both confirmed
the presence of C. ciliata in the campus of Oradea
University. The authorities mentioned that because the pest
is not mentioned in our country before, there were no
approved PPP, so they were advising hygiene measures. The same situation repeated
in 2015, when another lace bugs invasion disturbed Oradea. The second generation
of lace bugs destroyed the London planes from a famous boulevard (Sf. Andrei, foto
1), information given by the Warning service of the Phytosanitary office Bihor
(crisana.ro, evenimenteoradea.ro,2015)
Baia Mare –2014. Due to huge infestation levels, in 7-12 May 2014, phytosanitary
treatments are advertised, mostly in Millennium Plaza and the green areas around.
The name of the company (SPAU) and the hours 5-7 a.m. are also given. Strangely,
adevarul.ro mention that approved PPP will be used.
Bucharest –2017,2018. More than 100 articles mention directly the stinging and
biting effect caused by lace bugs in the Romanian capital. All the
articles are clearly over-reacting, using words as “monsters”,
“invasion”, “terror”, “havoc” etc. Although in all articles only C.
ciliate is mentioned, in many pictures and movies C. arcuata can
be observed. Also, one blog (sutu.ro) depicts a huge population
of C. arcuata on Fragaria x ananassa plants, a new host plant
record.
(pictures
by
Cristian
Șuțu).
Causes for higher biting incidence and susceptibility to an allergic reaction
In 2017 and 2018, in Bucharest, many citizens, especially children, arrived at the
hospital with allergic reactions such as bloating, itching and reddened skin.
Preliminary results of our questionnaire showed that citizens were bitten especially
at noon, 50%of those with symptoms having A2 blood group and 30% blood group
01. The blood sucking behavior seems to be triggered by the excessive heat. It had
been sugested that the persons with type I hypersensitivity might be the one affected
by lace bugs stings.
The DNA barcoding
High quality traces were obtained for three out of four specimens, while the
seqencing failed on the one specimen for which the abdomen was used as tissue for
sampling.
All details regarding taxonomy and vouchers for the can be found on the Barcode of
Life Datasystem (BOLD) website
(Ratnasingham and Hebert 2007)in the
“Insects of economic importance from
Romania”dataset (MCCRG) and inside the
BIN ACJ7209.
The fact that all three nucleotide sequnces
were different between them and the highest
sequence similarity was obtained for two
Corythucha marmorata entries, a species that
is not know to occur in Europe, leads to the
conclusion that either the used primers or the
tissue sampling were not performed corectly.
Only 5 data records gave a similarity% above
99%.
Citizens and journalist reports of lace bugs in Romania should have been considered
since their beginig (at least 2011) both by the researchers and authorities, a fact
which might possibly contributed to an effective control for the spread of
Corythucha sp.in Romania.
Fragaria x ananassa was found as a host plant for C. arcuata through a citizen
report.
Blood type
Altghough high quality traces were obtained, the lack of similarity with other
sequences, except a species which is not known to ocur in Europe, lead to uncertain
conclusion and the DNA barcoding analysis need to be repeated.
Available on request.
The DNA barcoding part of research was was supported by a grant of the
Romanian Ministry of Research and Innovation, CCCDI-UEFISCDI, project
number PN-III-P1-1.1-MC-2017-2338, within PNCDI III
