Proceedings of 

 the United States 

 National Museum N< ^S^ 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION . WASHINGTON, D.C. 



Volume 123 1967 



Number 3614 



Revision of the Cactus Plant Bug Genus 



Hesperolabops Kirkaldy 



(Hemiptera: Miridae) 



By Richard C. Froeschner 

 Curator, Division of Hemiptera 



High among the successful attempts to control weeds by manipula- 

 tion of their insect enemies stands the control of cacti. Huffacker 

 (1959, p. 253) has summarized an important part of that effort: "The 

 urgency for controlling prickly pear in Australia in the 1920's was un- 

 challengeable, and the subsequent success of that work has stood as a 

 landmark not likely to be equalled." But to demonstrate the com- 

 plexity of the role of the cactus in man's economy, he continues: 

 However, Opuntia spp. are not always considered pests. Use of these plants in 

 Hawaii, South Africa, Madagascar, the United States, and Mexico as human food, 

 fodder, and a source of water for stock on dry ranges has been reported. . . . 

 Importation of Cactoblastis cadorum (Berg) into the United States has long been 

 denied largely on such grounds, although it has been stated that, in West Texas 

 alone, an area of some 60,000,000 acres of range land are infested with Opuntia 

 and consequently suffer greatly lowered values. On spineless cactus plantations 

 in some areas of South Africa it has been necessary to control the cochineal 

 previously introduced against the related pest cacti. 



Heeding Wilson's (1964, p. 225) statement that the "biological 

 control of weeds is intimately connected with basic ecological prob- 

 lems," field workers seeking to understand the basic ecological 

 problems in regards to cacti have been finding previously unreported 

 relationships. 



248-337—67 



