Red Eyes Bug
Plague of Adults
Ellura
Red Eyes Bug
Nursery
 
                      
Red Eyes Bug (Leptocoris mitellatus)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)
Order: True Bugs (Hemiptera)
Family: Scentless Plant Bug (Coreoidea, Rhopalidae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Red Eyes Bug (Leptocoris mitellatus)
This Photo:     Instar

Thank you Karen Weaving for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA), the Riverland and elsewhere
~13mm long.
A mainly dark grey bug with red/orange highlights.
The instars are very orange/red.
Apparantly they like dark moist places. They don't cause wood rot, but like to live in it. So finding them near a wooden dwelling is an indicator of a leaky roof.
Genital examination is required to separate species within the genus. Accordings to Gross, "This is apparently the commonest of the Australian species and is the only species in Southern Australia." As such we have identified these to species based on location.
On Atlas, SA Museum has since found Leptocoris tagalicus in SA, but they look different; they don't have any black on the body.

Similar Species: Peaceful Seed Bug (Spilostethus pacificus)

Copyright © 2011-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 16-Jun-2011
This species is an Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.