Susan asks:

What types of insects consume agricultural crops/plants such as bean, pea, corn, and/or tomatoe plants? Also are there any wingless varieties of these insects that could be produced/breeded quickly?

I guess the quick and easy answer is, “many and yes”

But I suppose you’d like more detail than that. There are so many different kinds of insects that consume agricultural crops/plants, so much so that whole departments at universities, field stations, government agencies, and academic/research societies are formed in response to the economic and ecological threats these pests pose. One could write a book about all of the pests that attack beans, peas, corn and tomato plants, so I won’t list them all. But, here are some (in)famous examples for those plants:

1. Beans/Peas: Grasshoppers, Mexican Bean Beetles, Thrips, Aphids, Stink Bugs, Pea Weevil. If you ever played with Mexican jumping beans as a kid, the jumping is caused by the larva of a moth (Laspeyresia saltitans) within the bean.
2. Corn: Grasshoppers, armyworms, cutworms, aphids, European corn borer, and corn earworm.
3. Tomatoes: Tomato hornworm, tomato fruitworm, cutworms.

Armyworms and Cutworms are not actual worms, but those are the common names given to larvae in the family of butterflies/moths known as Noctuidae. European corn borer is another larva of a moth from the family Pyralidae. Corn earworm and tomato fruitworm are actually the same insect but on different host plants, and it is yet another larva of a moth (Helicoverpa zea) from the family Noctuidae.

Are there wingless varieties that can reproduce quickly? Well, yes and no. But mostly yes, haha. Obviously, most of the insects listed above are pests during their larval stage and not reproductive stage. Although, that is not entirely true either, since adults use the host plant for nectar/pollen, mate finding, and then oviposition (which would also harm the plant to some degree). The most obvious wingless adult insects would be the wingless generation of aphids. Aphids use a piercing stylet mouthpart to puncture through the plant tissue in order to feed. The aphid’s lifecycle is kind of complicated and crazy in that they have both asexual and sexual generations, which include winged and wingless generations. Fast -breeding insects is all kind of relative, we would consider most insect lifecycles fast. But I think the aphids would also fall into the category of a fast-reproducing insect. I think this is especially true because once you have this insect in your greenhouse or on your plant it is really hard to get rid of them…and it is really surprising to see only three on your plant one day, and then over a hundred the next. They never seem to go away.

If my answers aren’t quite what you were looking for, let me know. I didn’t go into very much detail about the various insects’ biology (because it would result in a book), but if you want to know more I would be more than willing to go into more detail.

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