Rainbow Shield Bug from Off the Coast of Mauritania

bugman

January 9th, 2010 at 2:53 pm

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January 7, 2010
Hi,
Thanks for that information. I’ve attached two more photos, a close up of the green bug, and one that shows very little detail, but how the little brown ones were spread on the deck. This a 84m long 18m beam ship covered in this way!!!
Regards, Alan
UK
Ed. Note: Found on ship Off coast of Mauritania

green beetle mauritania alan 300x235 Rainbow Shield Bug from Off the Coast of Mauritania

Unknown Jewel Beetle

Hi Alan,
We wish your photo showed the head and mouthparts. We believe this is a Jewel Beetle or Metallic Borer Beetle in the family Buprestidae, but we are unsure what species. We will post the image to get assistance from our readership. Mauritania issued a stamp in 1970 with a Jewel Beetle, but it is not your species. We are also linking to your previous letter with the unusual phenomenon of Hemipterans swarming your ship.

Correction courtesy of Eric Eaton
Hi, Daniel:
The brown bugs on the ship are something in the family Coreidae (leaf-footed bugs, squash bugs). The green “beetle” is actually another true bug, a shield bug in the genus Callidea or Calliphara. It is easier to tell from the distant image than the close-up! The awkward angle of the close-up does make it appear to be a buprestid, I agree.
Wish I could be of more help. The coreids should be easy for a European entomologist to identify, but I’ll keep looking, see if I can come up with something.
Eric

Update: November 13, 2011
Dudu Diaries calls this beauty the Rainbow Shield Bug, but does not provide a scientific name. It seems in 2009, we received a correction from someone who identified the Rainbow Shield Bug as Calidea dregii, citing a FlickR link. We have also located a pdf entitled 2010-01_Alert_Rainbow_Shield_Bug that identifies the Rainbow Shield Bug as Calidea dregii and provides some fascinating information on the species including: “The Rainbow Shield Bug suck the sap from developing seeds leading to seeds dropping prematurely or not developing fully. In cotton it leads to staining and therefore a lower price if the bolls do not drop prematurely. The low number of mature Jatropha seeds observed in Guinea-Bissau is likely caused by seed dropping due to damage from Rainbow Shield Bugs.” Your photo illustrates a winged adult as well as some immature nymphs. Now with our new research, we need to correct our archives.