Black and Yellow Bug
Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 1:43 PM
These beetles or bugs were found on two different acacia species about 25km east of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. I have been unable to find any pictures on the web which remotely resemble them.
Dr David Hewitt
25 km east of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
possibly Immature Parent Bugs
Dear Dr Hewitt,
We believe these are immature Stink Bugs, but we are having trouble identifying the species. Many times, immature Stink Bugs or nymphs look radically different from the adults. Hopefully one of our faithful Australian readers will be able to identify the exact species.
Stink Bug Nymphs: Commius elegans
These bugs have similar markings to Cantao parentum nymphs, although the colour (yellow) is different from the orange of the Cantao parentum.
Grev
Thanks Grev,
If you are correct, and we believe you may be correct, then these immature Parent Bugs are actually Shield Bugs in the family Scutelliridae and not Stink Bugs in the family Pentatomidae. They are called Parent Bugs because unlike most insects, the female guards the young nymphs for several weeks. The original letter indicates they were found on Acacia, and a website we linked to indicates: “its food plant, Mallotus claoxyloides (Smell of the Bush) .” This general color pattern is one that is common on several species of Stink Bugs in North America. Another Australian Insect Website lists these food plants: “Found on the Red Kamala (Mallotus philippensis) and other such species from the family (M. claoxyloides, M. discolor) and also Araucaria cunninghammii ” but does not mention Acacia. This may still be an unidentified Stink Bug nymph.
I like ThisRelated posts:
These bugs have similar markings to Cantao parentum nymphs, although the colour (yellow) is different from the orange of the Cantao parentum.
According to this link it should be Scutiphora pedicellata:
http://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:biodiversity.org.au:afd.taxon:152e8206-1514-4cc9-bc66-99ec8959236d#tab_gallery
Thanks for this information. We will update the posting with new information later in the day.
I found the same on the ground on the outskirts of Ballarat near a dam in a eucalyptus forest
After several checks again, I think this one is very similar to Scutiphora pedicellata, but if you look very carefully you can see nevertheless, that there are differences in the markings. On Project Noah we had a lot of discussions and I think we got it now correct: This is Communis elegans, Scutelleridae.
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/160996015
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/115536346
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/123096128
Scutiphora pedicellata again for closer comparison.
Shape of the wings and pronotum is slightly different. The black marking at the back are much narrower, which is not due to different instars but different genus/species.
Thanks for providing such a thoughtful comment and so many links.
I found these nymphs together with their adult Commius elegans on Cherry Ballart http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/160996015 . They are pentatomidae.
The nymph of Scutiphora pedicellata http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/16912110 nymph has a wider first green bar in the abdomen and is rounder. The first wider bar in the abdominal patch seems to be consistent with other species in scutelleridae.
The images at http://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:biodiversity.org.au:afd.taxon:152e8206-1514-4cc9-bc66-99ec8959236d#tab_gallery show one nymph (second image) which I believe is actually Commius elegans .
Thank you for providing this researched comment and providing links.
Thanks, Martin for the information and I apolgize my unprecise namings in my comment. It actually is a Pentatomidae, Pentatominae, Diemeniini, Commius elegans. Not Scutelleridae and not Communis elegans. Sorry. But now I think we have it correct.