Subject: Leaf Footed Bug
Location: Rietfontein, Pretoria, South Africa
January 9, 2014 12:00 am
In response to an earlier post I am sending two photos of a bug that I suspect is a Leaf Footed or True bug. It was observed in my garden during summer (November) 2013. Your identification help is highly appreciated.
Signature: Robert Erasmus
Hi Robert,
We are currently experiencing a technical situation that we don’t quite understand and that has caused us to contact our webmaster. The comment you supplied to our old posting of Possibly Leaf Footed Bug Nymph from South Africa has appeared in our email account, but not to the posting itself, so we cannot approve the comment to the site. We are happy you submitted your own photographs and we would like to address your questions. It is interesting that you labeled one file as a Stink Bug and one as a True Bug. We still believe the posting you originally commented upon is likely a Leaf Footed Bug, and we agree that your nymph appears to be a Stink Bug or Shield Bug nymph. Nymphs can be notoriously difficult to identify as they often differ considerably from adults and it is generally the adult or imago that appears in identification guide books. With that said, we will attempt to research your request. In the meantime, we will go live and enlist the assistance of our readership, and we will follow our gut instincts and classify this as a Stink Bug or Shield Bug.
Update:
Your nymph looks similar to, but not identical to, this Stink Bug nymph from Pretoria that is posted to Project Noah. We found a pretty good match on ISpot, but it is not identified beyond the Stink Bug family Pentatomidae.