''Mictis profana'' is a species of insect in the family Coreidae known by the common names crusader bug and holy cross bug. It is distributed in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, and the Indo-Pacific. The insect can be seen in most habitat types, from

urban area An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, t ...

s to the coastal heath, except for the

desert A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About on ...

Description

The adult is 20–25 mm long and 7–10 mm wide, stout, and grey to brown with a clear saltire in cream or yellow on its back. The legs are long and the shoulders of the pronotum project into short spines in adults and older nymphs. The hindmost legs are much thicker than the other legs, and the hind femur has inner rows of fine teeth and one preapical spine. The hindmost legs are shorter and much swollen in the male. The hind tibia are inwardly lamellate in about middle third; less so in the male, which also has a distinct spine on the lamellate area. Later

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 have a pair of orange spots in the middle of the upper surface of abdomen, and wing pads in later instars are marked with orange. The species is

polyphagous Feeding is the process by which organisms, typically animals, obtain food. Terminology often uses either the suffixes -vore, -vory, or -vorous from Latin ''vorare'', meaning "to devour", or -phage, -phagy, or -phagous from Greek φαγε ...

, and has been recorded feeding on a variety of native and introduced plants such as eucalypts, wattles, orchard trees such as

citrus ''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering plant, flowering trees and shrubs in the rue family, Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as Orange (fruit), oranges, Lemon, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and lim ...

, and cultivated crops including

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...

, pawpaw,

cowpea The cowpea (''Vigna unguiculata'') is an annual herbaceous legume from the genus ''Vigna''. Its tolerance for sandy soil and low rainfall have made it an important crop in the semiarid regions across Africa and Asia. It requires very few input ...

tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...

, beans, and

green gram The mung bean (''Vigna radiata''), alternatively known as the green gram, maash ( fa, ماش٫ )٫ mūng (), monggo, or munggo (Philippines), is a plant species in the legume family.Brief Introduction of Mung Bean. Vigna Radiata Extract G ...

. Although it is a minor pest of citrus and wattles it is considered a helpful

biological control agent Biological control or biocontrol is a method of controlling pests, such as insects, mites, weeds, and plant diseases, using other organisms. It relies on predation, parasitism, herbivory, or other natural mechanisms, but typically also invo ...

against the weed ''

Mimosa pigra ''Mimosa pigra'', commonly known as the giant sensitive tree (''pigra'' = lazy, slow), is a species of plant of the genus ''Mimosa'', in the family Fabaceae. The genus ''Mimosa'' (Mimosaceae) contains 400–450 species, most of which are native ...

''.

References

* (2007)
Crusader bug (''Mictis profana'')
Pest and Diseases Image Library. Updated on 25 November 2010 11:24:56 AEST.
Australian Museum: The Crusader Bug
Last Updated: 8 May 2009 ''This article incorporates text fro
this source
which is licensed unde
CC-BY 3.0 Australia
'' * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q5190160 Mictini Insects of Australia Insects of Indonesia Insects described in 1803