''Zicrona caerulea'', the blue shieldbug, is a species of 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 ...
.
Description
''Zicrona caerulea'' can reach an adult size of about . The body is uniformly metallic blue-green (hence the Latin name ''caerulea'', meaning blue). In the immatures the abdomen is red with black markings.
These bugs are useful predators of leaf beetles in the genus ''
Altica
''Altica'' (New Latin from Greek , ''haltikós'', "jumper" or "jumping") is a large genus of flea beetles in the subfamily Galerucinae, with about 300 species, distributed nearly worldwide.Ross H. Arnett et al. ''American Beetles'', Vol. 2: ''Po ...
'', of larvae of various beetles and caterpillars of moths, but it also feeds on plants. Eggs are laid in the spring. New adults of this
univoltine
Voltinism is a term used in biology to indicate the number of broods or generations of an organism in a year. The term is most often applied to insects, and is particularly in use in sericulture, where silkworm varieties vary in their voltinism.
...
species can be found from July onwards. This bug overwinters as an adult.
Distribution and habitat
This species is present in
Eurasia
Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...
and in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
. Its natural habitat consists of low vegetation in moors, heaths, damp grassland and forest edges.
References
Fauna europaeaCatalogue of LifeNature Spot
External links
Stages Chart on FlickriverBugguide
Asopinae
Insects described in 1758
Articles containing video clips
Hemiptera of Asia
Hemiptera of Europe
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
{{Pentatomidae-stub