Hibiscus Harlequin Bug

Description:

is a brightly coloured convex and rounded shield-shaped bug with a metallic sheen that grows to about 20 mm. Adult females are mostly orange and males are both blue and red or orange. The colours are quite variable. It lives in Northern and Eastern Australia, New Guinea and several Pacific Islands in habitats ranging from urban to agricultural and coastal areas.[1]

Habitat:

The Hibiscus Harlequin Bugs feed on many species of the Hibiscus family (Malvaceae), as well as cultivated cotton. They will also eat Illawarra flame tree flowers, grevillea and bottlebrush saplings. They pierce the stems of young shoots and suck the sap. Females lay clsuters of eggs around twigs and then guard them until they hatch

Notes:

And I have been calling them 'stink beetles' all this time!! The tree they are in is a hibiscus, very common tree in this area.