The green stink bug or green soldier bug (''Chinavia hilaris'') is a stink bug of the family
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 G ...
.
Taxonomy
![Green and stinky (436947700)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Green_and_stinky_%28436947700%29.jpg)
The species was previously placed in the genus ''Acrosternum'' but has been classified as in the genus ''Chinavia'' in the more recent literature (e.g., Schwertner and Grazia, 2006). However, the
Entomological Society of America
The Entomological Society of America (ESA) was founded in 1889 and today has more than 7,000 members, including educators, extension personnel, consultants, students, researchers, and scientists from agricultural departments, health agencies, ...
has not officially recognized this change despite this shift in scientific naming.
Description
![Green Stink Bug](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Green_Stink_Bug.jpg)
The green stink bug's color is typically bright green, with narrow yellow, orange, or reddish edges.
It is a large, shield-shaped bug with an elongate, oval form and a length between 13 and 18 mm. It can be differentiated from the species ''
Nezara viridula
''Nezara viridula'', commonly known as the southern green stink bug (USA), southern green shield bug (UK) or green vegetable bug (Australia and New Zealand), is a plant-feeding stink bug. Believed to have originated in Ethiopia, it can now be fo ...
'' by its black outermost three
antennal segments. Its anterolateral (= in front and away from the middle)
pronotal margin is rather straight and not strongly arced such as in ''
Chinavia pensylvanica''.
Both adults and
nymph
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 ty ...
s have large stink
gland
In animals, a gland is a group of cells in an animal's body that synthesizes substances (such as hormones) for release into the bloodstream (endocrine gland) or into cavities inside the body or its outer surface (exocrine gland).
Structure
De ...
s on the underside of the
thorax
The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans, mammals, and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main divisions of the cre ...
extending more than half-way to the edge of the
metapleuron
The metathorax is the posterior of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the third pair of legs. Its principal sclerites ( exoskeletal plates) are the metanotum (dorsal), the metasternum (ventral), and the metapleuron (lateral) ...
. They discharge large amounts of this foul-smelling liquid when disturbed. This liquid, dried and pulverized, was once used at industrial level to reinforce the smell of some acids. Now it's been replaced by artificial composites.
Habitat
This species is found in orchards, gardens, woodlands and crop fields throughout North America, feeding with their needle-like mouthparts on the juices of a wide variety of plants from May until the arrival of frost. Their range spans from the eastern United States, from New England to Florida, to the 98 degree west longitudinal line; they are also seldom found anywhere west of this boundary, though are found moderately along the west coast, from San Diego, California to Seattle, Washington. Adults develop a preference for developing seeds and thus become crop pests (tomato, bean, pea, cotton, soybean, eggplant). When no seeds are present, they also feed on stems and foliage, thus damaging several fruit trees, such as the apple, cherry, orange and peach trees.
Green stink bugs frequent noncrop hosts more than other stink bug species earlier in the season. Plants such as black cherry, elderberry, mimosa and pecan exist as farmscape edges, which provide immature organisms a safe location to develop and a gateway to agricultural fields. Unlike cotton, peanuts and corn are not considered host crops, and the last has been shown to slow dispersion of green stink bug to nearby host crops due to its tall field edges.
Lifecycle
![Green Stink Bug (Chinavia hilaris) - Guelph, Ontario 08](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Green_Stink_Bug_%28Chinavia_hilaris%29_-_Guelph%2C_Ontario_08.jpg)
Adults appear in the field early September and become plentiful in sheltered positions. Then, mating happens in early October and finally, the eggs can be found mid to late October. Nymphs appear in late October and early November. Two or three generations occur in the summer months in the field and in the laboratory at 26 °C.
Reproduction
The adult females attach their keg-shaped eggs on the underside of foliage in double rows of twelve eggs or more. These clusters appear almost cylindrical, and they transition from light green, to yellow, to light pink as organisms approach hatching. Time from egg deposition to hatch decreases with rises in temperature. The green stink bug produces one generation in the North and two generations in the South. The early
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 ass ...
nymphs are rather brightly colored and striped, turning green when approaching adulthood. The eggs are usually laid in clusters of 14 (some clusters contain fewer eggs, with 9 being the smallest number recorded out of 77 observations). The eggs are laid either on the undersurfaces of leaves or on the stems of plants or on the flowers of salvia.
Agricultural impact
![Trissolcus on Chinavia eggs](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Trissolcus_on_Chinavia_eggs.jpg)
The green stink bug is considered to be a pest of economic importance in the United States. Crops are considered to be damaged when plant tissue is split by the
feeding stylet. Most damage is administered by adults; effects can include catfishing (the misshaping of plant tissue, creating rough and corky edges) in peaches, internal warts and stained lint within cotton, green stem syndrome in soybeans and white spongy areas on tomatoes. Any dimples or scars on fruit are most likely administered by nymphs. On occasion, the laying of eggs on grapes causes said nymphs to deplete the juices from the growing fruits.
Pest management
This stink bug species is parasitized by the
tachinid
The Tachinidae are a large and variable family of true flies within the insect order Diptera, with more than 8,200 known species and many more to be discovered. Over 1,300 species have been described in North America alone. Insects in this family ...
fly ''
Trichopoda pennipes
''Trichopoda pennipes'' is a species of feather-legged fly in the dipteran family Tachinidae.
Distribution
This species is native to North America (United States, Mexico), Hawaiian Islands and South America and has been introduced into south ...
''
and by parasitic wasps.
Species ''Trissolcus euschisti''
/ref>
The green stink bug uses the pheromone
A pheromone () is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting like hormones outside the body of the secreting individual, to affect the behavio ...
methyl (E,Z,Z)-2,4,6-decatrienoate in its communication system and this may be used to attract the bug away from crop fields.
See also
* 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 (1 ...
* 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 G ...
References
Sources
''Chinavia hilaris''
BugGuide. Iowa State University Entomology. Retrieved 6 October 2010.
* Lorus and Margery Milne : National Audubon Society : Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders; Alfred A. Knopf, New York, fourteenth printing, 1996;
*
* Schwertner, C. F. and J. Grazia. 2006. Descrição de seis espécies de Chinavia (Hemiptera, Pentatomidae, Pentatominae) da América do Sul. Iheringia (Zool.) 96(2): 237–248.
External links
on the University of Florida
The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...
/ Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences
The University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) is a teaching, research and Extension scientific organization focused on agriculture and natural resources. It is a partnership of federal, state, and county governmen ...
''Featured Creatures'' website
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2823520
Nezarini
Hemiptera of North America
Insects described in 1832
Taxa named by Thomas Say