What is this pink and black beetle?
Location: Down East Maine – field
November 17, 2011 9:20 am
I have tried to find out – but not 100% sure – closest I could find was a Calligraphic Beetle? But the shape of his back-end is more pointed than the rounded Calligraphic Beetles I found images of on the Bug Guide website, and the black markings don’t fully match up. This beetle was definitely pink too. I would love your help:) It definitely was taking this monarch caterpillar with it!
Signature: Caroline
Dear Caroline,
The predator in this Food Chain drama is an Anchor Stink Bug, Stiretrus anchorago, and we identified it on BugGuide which notes: “Adults feed on the larvae of beetles, butterflies, and moths. Stiretrus anchorago is considered an economically beneficial insect, feeding on the larvae of the Mexican Bean Beetle, among other pest species.” It seems late in the season for this to occur. When was this photo taken?
The photo was taken August 8th. And thank you soooo much for getting back to me. Very exciting to know who that was in my backyard!
-Best, Caroline
I just found 2 stink bugs snacking on ‘my’ baby monarch caterpillars. I had no idea that anything ate Monarch caterpillars at all – I was very surprised.
Is there anything I can do other than pick these greedy gobblers off of the milkweed?
Will they kill a Monarch in its chrysalis?
A few years ago it looked like I’d have a bumper crop of Monarchs, but I found quite a few had turned black – sort of mummified while still caterpillars. Could it have been stink bugs?
Monarch Caterpillars might also be parasitized by certain wasps. We are sorry to hear about your losses, but hopefully enough caterpillars will survive. We do not know of Stink Bugs attacking the Chrysalis.
Today, Sept. 6, 2018, I witnessed a stink bug of some sort attacking s monarch chrysalis. It had its long nose stuck inside the chrysalis. I wished I had taken a photo of it before sending it on its way to feed somewhere else.
PS. I live in Sundridge, ON, Canada
I witnessed this as well and today the chrysalis looks dead. It has some discoloring near the top part of the chrysalis and the area is black where the stink bugs pointy mouth was.
Today, Sept. 6, 2018, I witnessed a stink bug of some sort attacking s monarch chrysalis. It had its long nose stuck inside the chrysalis. I wished I had taken a photo of it before sending it on its way to feed somewhere else.
PS. I live in Sundridge, ON, Canada
I just found one of these sucking dry one of my baby Monarchs. Im just to the north of the Quabbin Reservoir.