Cermatulus nasalis on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Female ''Cermatulus nasalis'' are between in length and males are slightly smaller. The head is brown and has a bluntly rounded snout. The
''Cermatulus nasalis'' is a
Des Helmore
Desmond W. Helmore (born 1940) is a New Zealand artist and illustrator, known both for his fine art and for his scientific work depicting insects, not least illustrating the New Zealand Arthropod Collection. One of the country's most noted and ...
">
File:HEMI Pentatomidae Cermatulus nasalis hudsoni f.png, ''Cermatulus nasalis hudsoni''
File:HEMI Pentatomidae Cermatulus nasalis nasalis f.png, ''Cermatulus nasalis nasalis''
File:HEMI Pentatomidae Cermatulus nasalis turbotti.png, ''Cermatulus nasalis turbotti''
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
of predatory shield bug
The Pentatomoidea are a superfamily of insects in the Heteroptera suborder of the Hemiptera order. As Hemiptera, they share a common arrangement of sucking mouthparts. The roughly 7000 species under Pentatomoidea are divided into 21 families (16 ...
in the family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
Pentatomidae
Pentatomidae is a family of insects belonging to the order Hemiptera, generally called shield bugs or stink bugs. Pentatomidae is the largest family in the superfamily Pentatomoidea, and contains around 900 genera and over 4700 species.Robert ...
. It is commonly known as the brown soldier bug or glossy shield bug and is native to Australia and New Zealand.
Subspecies
Three subspecies are recognised : *''C. nasalis hudsoni'' Woodward 1953 *''C. nasalis nasalis'' (Westwood, 1837) *''C. nasalis turbotti'' Woodward 1950Description
Female ''Cermatulus nasalis'' are between in length and males are slightly smaller. The head is brown and has a bluntly rounded snout. The prothorax
The prothorax is the foremost of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the first pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the pronotum ( dorsal), the prosternum ( ventral), and the propleuron ( lateral) o ...
is broadly triangular and marked with fine perforations, the colour being some shade of yellowish-, orangeish- or rusty-brown with blackish markings and fine brownish-black punctuations. The dorsal surface of the abdomen is black and the ventral surface a mottled yellowish-brown. The forewings are mainly brown, each having a large black triangular patch on the posterior part. The antennae and legs are yellowish-brown.
Ecology
''Cermatulus nasalis'' ispredatory
Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...
and feeds on a variety of insect species, plunging its beak into its prey and sucking out the body fluids. There is just one generation each year, breeding taking place over a period of several weeks during the summer. The female lays a batch of about thirty black eggs in three neat rows, on a leaf or patch of bark. The newly hatched nymphs
A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are ...
are red with black heads and feed at first on the bacteria that coat the eggs, and also on plant sap. They moult five times, each instar
An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'', "form", "likeness") is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult (''ecdysis''), until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow or ...
having a different pattern of red and black markings. From the second instar onwards they are predators and feed on caterpillars and other insects with soft bodies.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q10446803 Asopinae Insects described in 1837 Hemiptera of Australia Hemiptera of New Zealand