Bilia castanea ( Carvalho, 1951 )

Ballal, Chandish R., Akbar, Shahid Ali, Yamada, Kazutaka, Wachkoo, Aijaz Ahmad & Varshney, Richa, 2018, Annotated catalogue of the flower bugs from India (Heteroptera: Anthocoridae, Lasiochilidae), Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 58 (1), pp. 207-226 : 215-216

Bilia castanea ( Carvalho, 1951)

Biliola castanea Carvalho, 1951: 388 . HOLOTYPE: ♀, India, Karnataka, Nandidrug Hill [= Nandi Hills] (BMNH).

Type material examined. HOLOTYPE:, ‘Type’ [printed circle with red border], ‘n.s.’ [handwritten], ‘S. India: / Nandidrug Hill. / 4,500 feet’ [printed], ‘Pres. by / Dr. T. V. Campbell. / B.M.1928-189’ [printed], ‘Biliola / castanea n. sp. / J.C.M. Carvalho det. 1951’ [handwritten + printed] ( BMNH) .

Additional material examined. INDIA: KARNATAKA: Bangalore, 11.vii.2011, 1 1 ♀ ( TKPM). TAMIL NADU: Hosur, Salem, iv.2015, 4 ♀♀ ( TKPM, NBAIR).

Distribution in India. Karnataka: Bangalore, Nandi Hills ( CARVALHO 1951, YASUNAGA et al. 2016b); Tamil Nadu: Hosur, Salem (this paper); West Bengal ( GHOSH et al. 1981).

General distribution. China (Hainan), Taiwan ( PÉRICART 1996, BU & ZHENG 2001).

Biology. The species inhabits plantations of Brassica nigra, grape (Vitis sp.), Nyctanthes arbor-tristis, Zizyphus, mulberry (Morus sp.), brinjal (Solanum melongena) and is reported to feed on thrips, the aphid Lipaphis erysimi (Kaltenbach, 1843) and the two spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae ( GHOSH et al. 1981, BALLAL & YAMADA 2016). This species has also been observed feeding on aphids and the eggs and nymphs of cicadellids ( CARAYON & MIYAMOTO 1960).