Red Jewel Bug Female, ventral | Red Jewel Bug Instar | |||||
Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | ||||
Order: | True Bugs (Hemiptera) | ||||
Family: | Shield Backed Bug (Pentatomoidea, Scutelleridae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
Species: | Red Jewel Bug (Choerocoris paganus) | ||||
This Photo: | 🔍Female, posterior🔎 | ||||
Other name: | Dodonaea bug | ||||
Thank you Danilo Lüdke for confirming the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA), the Adelaide Hills, the Riverland, Coastal Areas and elsewhere ~12mm long. We suspect the different coloured shield (ie all dark vs wine glass shaped stripe) relates to different gender; with the females having the wine glass shape. We've included some shots of them mating to prove their variation in colour occurs within the same species and to show the size differences. Males seem thicker at the back, while females are wider and larger overall. An amazing array of fire engine red and deep metallic green head and shield. There are 6 small white dots around the rear edge of the abdomen. | |||||
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