Spined Predatory Shield Bug - Oechalia schellenbergii
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- Body length 15mm
- The above picture taken in Brisbane Botanic Garden on early winter. It was on a leaf with leaf-mining pattern. It seemed to us that it was looking for the leaf-mining insect. The bugs feed with piercing-sucking mouthparts on caterpillars and other soft body insects.
- The Spined Predatory Shield Bug is also a common predator of the Leaf Beetle larvae. In mid-summer, we saw a young gum tree in Karawatha Forest which was heavily infected by the Leaf Beetle Larvae. However, near every group of feeding beetle larvae, there was a Spined Predatory Shield Bug attacking them.
Family Pentatomidae
This page contains pictures and information about Spined Predatory Shield Bugs that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
Eggs and Nymphs
- Their eggs are black in colour and are usually laid in multiples of 14. The nymphs are dark red and brown in colour.
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- 1st instars
- Late instars
- Above picture shows the young bug with its prey - the leaf beetle larvae.
- Reference:
- 1. Insects of Australia, CSIRO, Division of Entomology, Melbourne University Press, 2nd Edition 1991, pp 509.
- 2. Stink Bugs of Australia - FaunaKeys, Australian Museum online 2003.
- 3. Oechalia Stål, 1862 - by Gerry Cassis, Emma Betts and Michael Elliott, Stink Bugs, Fauna Net, Australian Museum 2002.
- 4. Oechalia schellenbergii (Guérin, 1831) - Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of the Environment and Heritage, Australia 2005.
5. Plant-feeding and Other Bugs (Hemiptera) of South Australia. Heteroptera-Part I - Gross, G.F. (1975). Adelaide: A.B. James, p229.
