Variable Shield Bug: S2, Face

Class:

Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)

Order:

True Bugs (Hemiptera)

Family:

Stink Bug (Pentatomoidea, Pentatomidae) iNaturalist Observation

Species:

Variable Shield Bug (Kapunda tepperi)

This Photo:

S2, Face

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere
1st Live Photo on-line:
From ~4.5mm to ~6mm long
Differentiating K. tepperi (rarely observed) & K. troughtoni (observed more) is not easy as they both vary somewhat.
The easiest way to differentiate them is by the trailing edge of the pronotum (posterolateral margin); it's bent in sharpely (angulately incised) in K. troughtoni, while smoothly curved in K. tepperi.
Another way is the shape of the face edges (lateral margins) in front of the eyes; they are bent in sharpely (acutely concave) in K. tepperi, while smoothly curved in K. troughtoni. But this 2nd difference is VERY prone to error as the angle of the camera has a significant impact on viewing the facial angles.

This species is

Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.

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