Long-spined Shield Bug
Dorsal
Ellura
Long-spined Shield Bug
Anterior
 
                      
Long-spined Shield Bug (Cuspicona longispina)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)
Order: True Bugs (Hemiptera)
Family: Stink Bug (Pentatomoidea, Pentatomidae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Long-spined Shield Bug (Cuspicona longispina)
This Photo:     🔍Profile🔎

Thank you Thomas Mesaglio for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere
1st Live Photo on-line:
Basically a green bug, ~6mm long. The one we found has an orange head, yellow go stripes that form a 'v' on it's back, with white under
The main diagnostic features are the massive horns/spindes protruding up & slightly forward from it's pronotum, as well as the horizonal black band made by punctuations across the pronotum (between the horns).
Of interest is the large ventral keel. While this occurs to some degree in some other shield bugs, here the proboscis is pushed to one side.
It also had a habit of folding it's antennae underneath.
Pinned specimens loose their striking colours, becoming a pale brown. Live photo's in this case make field recognition so much easier

Copyright © 2019-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 11-Sep-2019
This species is an Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.