Shield Bug

Description:

Hemiptera; Pentatomidae. Like I have said in other spottings, I do not like to get stuck at family level because (for me anyway) it almost has connotations of laziness. But we all know that these bugs are so numerous that it can be next to impossible to I.D. them properly. I always look for the clues that I think will help me most. Things like the head, that kind of round cornered triangle shape with bulging eyes at the side. These make it sure to be a Hemipter. The laterotergites, the shape of the pronotum and the large scutellum all combine to confirm it is a Shield Bug. But the best identifier for any shield bug lies in its name "Pentatomidae". This name is derived from two Classical Greek words which mean "five sections", referring to the antennae. So, if it looks like a Hemipter and the antennae have five segments....well you know the rest. I think that there are at least two instars represented in the 5 photos shown in this spotting. If you look at pictures 1,2 & 5, they look the same, but 3 & 4 have some obvious differences. I am reasonably sure that they are all siblings and from experience of raising some shield bugs from eggs, I know that they don't all moult at the exact same moment. So please look and reach your own conclusions.

Habitat:

These nymphs were spotted behind the rice mill in a tiny, odd-shaped corner of a rice field which could never be ploughed and cultivated, so it has grown wild for many years.

Notes:

I originally published this spotting as an Unidentified Pentatomidae, but information and pictures in https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Li..., led me to believe that this might be Eocanthecona furcellata Wolff, 1811. Then I looked at pictures in https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/546176-..., which confirmed this to be correct. The semanticscholar.org paper also confirms that E. furcellata is a predatory Shield Bug.