Predatory Stinkbug – Podisus serieventris
Family Pentatomidae (Stink Bugs)
Live stinkbug found at 9650 ft. elevation at White River Nat’l Forest, Eagle County, Colorado.
Stink bugs feed on developing seed of many hosts including trees, shrubs, vines, weeds and many cultivated crops. They may also feed on the stems and foliage when seed are not present. Both nymph and adult stink bugs pierce plants with their needlelike mouthparts and suck sap from pods, buds, blossoms and seeds. Predatory stinkbugs like those featured here do the same thing to their mostly insect prey.
Stink bugs get their common name from the foul-smelling fluids they exude when disturbed. Both adults and nymphs have large glands that discharge underneath the body. Stinkbugs are shy, I can tell you – and they will fly off very quickly if you get in their face.
Several species of insects that feed on peaches and other fruits early in the growing season cause a gnarling and distortion of the fruits called catfacing. Plant bugs and stink bugs, called catfacing insects, are largely responsible for this type of injury. They suck the sap from the fruit. If the peaches do not fall as a result of this attack, fruit development is inhibited in the area of the punctures. The surrounding healthy tissue continues to grow thereby causing a defect resembling a cat’s face.
The green stink bug, Acrosternum hilare, and brown stink bug, Euschistus servus are the two catfacing culprits most frequently cited from the Pentatomidae family.
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Stink Bugs are shield-shaped bugs with 5-segmented antennae; large, triangular scutellum; head relatively small and often “tucked into” a concavity in anterior margin of pronotum; ocelli present. Body is divided into 5 sections: pronotum, scutellum, two basal leathery portions of hemelytra [one on each side of the scutellum], and two apical membranous portions of hemelytra that completely overlap and act like a single section [1]. Stink bugs feed on developing seed of many hosts including trees, shrubs, vines, weeds and many cultivated crops. They may also feed on the stems and foliage when seed are not present. Both nymph and adult stink bugs pierce plants with their needlelike mouthparts and suck sap from pods, buds, blossoms and seeds. |
 Stinkbug characteristics: triangular scutellum, ocelli, compound eyes and flying wings. |
References
- Bugguide.net, Podisus serieventris
- Alfred G. Wheeler and Sir T. Richard E. Southwood FRS, Biology of the Plant Bugs
- American Museum of Natural History, National Science Foundation and University of New South Wales, Plant Bug Planetary Biodiversity Inventory, Plant Bugs (Miridae)
Order Hemiptera | Bugs Main | Bugs Index | Assassin Bugs | Plant Bugs | Ambush Bugs
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