Subject: Black with orange and yellow markings a tick or fly or mite
Geographic location of the bug: Israel
Date: 01/22/2019
Time: 04:34 PM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: Is this a tick. If not what is it. Looks a bit like a lone star tick
How you want your letter signed: Hilly Abe
Dear Hilly Abe,
This is NOT a tick. At first we thought this Stink Bug in the family Pentatomidae might be an African Painted Bug, but we could not find record of it is Israel. Our searching took us to Israel’s Nature Site and the Heteroptera of Israel page where we identified your Stink Bug as Stenozygum coloratum. Encyclopedia of Life has an image of a aggregation of nymphs, and according to the European Journal of Entomology: “The variegated caper bug (CB) Stenozygum coloratum (Klug, 1845) is common in the Eastern Mediterranean region and a minor agricultural pest.”
Thanks! Great service!
H