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Pentatomid bug nymphs -early instars

Commius elegans

Description:

These nymphs of a shield bug where seen on the same tree. Pic 1 shows several nymphs clustered together near some eggs, half of which showed signs of recent hatching. Pics 2,3 & 4 show later instars.

Habitat:

Spotted on Cherry Ballart (Exocarpos cupressiformis)

Notes:

My thanks to martinl for the ID and information on the species.
Here is his spotting of adults and nymphs of this bug. http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/160... http://lifeunseen.com/index2_item_5724.p...

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2 Comments

Leuba Ridgway
Leuba Ridgway 10 years ago

Thanks for the ID and information about the differences, Martin. Should remember this. In the third photo, it looks like there are only 3 dark marks but, a closer look shows a line through the first mark, dividing it into two - a narrow first and broader second mark.

MartinL
MartinL 10 years ago

Yes Leuba, I missed this one.
Other examples that I found online of Commius elegans are often on Wild cherry and this seems to be a very good indication. To analyze the nymphs, here are my observations; Scutiphora pedicellata has four green marks on its abdominal dorsal sclerites, the most anterior one is wider than the rest. Commius elegans has simialar four sclerites but the first one is narrowerer than the second. They are very similar but surprisingly belong to scutelleridae and pentatomidae respectively...

Leuba Ridgway
Spotted by
Leuba Ridgway

Victoria, Australia

Spotted on Nov 24, 2013
Submitted on Jan 3, 2014

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