Long Gum-tree Shield Bug
Adult, spiracles
Adelaide Hills
Long Gum-tree Shield Bug
Adult, proboscis feeding position
 
                      
Long Gum-tree Shield Bug (Poecilometis strigatus)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)
Order: True Bugs (Hemiptera)
Family: Stink Bug (Pentatomoidea, Pentatomidae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Long Gum-tree Shield Bug (Poecilometis strigatus)
This Photo:     Adult, proboscis resting position

Thank you David Muirhead for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found in the Adelaide Hills and possibly elsewhere
~16-17mm with 4 antennae segments. The proportion of the length of one segment to another is diagnostic. Gross gives the ratio of these as 45:95:70:65. Importantly the shoulders/pronotum are not spined with these.
The binomial name of "strigatus" implies these are "longer than wide"
Overal size is also important when id'ing these Poecilometis, as < 15mm involves a different subset of bugs.
Notice the colour of the emerging adult is nearly white. It's easy to find different colours from very pale to almost black as they age. We have also found nymphs having a large range of colour density (pale to dark). Shown here is a dark nymph. It's only a guess that this nymph is this species, but given the large number of adults we've found in the area, and the other diagnostic features fit (antennae segments, antennae & leg colour, etc), except for size of course.
Also called Stink bugs. While we've never smelt the odour they produce, some species can emit a cocktail involving cyanide as a defence mechanism. Shown here is the "efferent of scent gland" or orifice that the foul smelling odour excudes from.
Also shown here are the spiracles (breathing holes), which are black, along the ventral side of the abdomen.

Copyright © 2017-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 22-Jan-2017
This species is an Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.