The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (Halyomorpha halys) is a small insect in the Pentatomidae family of shield bugs. It is called the Stink Bug because it has an unpleasant smell when it is squashed.
The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug has a dark-brown and bluish hard, shield-shaped exo-skeleton and a cream-coloured underbelly. The shield is called a scutellum. Marmorated means ‘marble-like’ or light and dark bands. Its six greyish-black legs, called tarsi, have three segments. It has forewings (front wings) called hemelytra, and it also has hindwings (back wings). It has a sucking mouthpart.
It grows to about 2 centimetres (less than an inch) long.
The Shield Bug is common worldwide. The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug is native to Asia, particularly China, Japan, the Korean Peninsula, and Taiwan, and is regarded as a pest for farmers because it eats plants, especially fruit and nut trees.
It lives in a wide range of habitats. It is terrestrial, living on the ground.
It feeds on plants, using its sucking and piercing mouthparts that extract the sap (juice) from leaves and branches.
The female lays around 28 eggs on the underside of plant leaves, which hatch after 2-5 days. The eggs hatch into nymphs which suck on leaves as they grow into adults.
[Location of photographs: Tbilisi, Georgia]
Photographer: Martina Nicolls
Martina Nicolls: SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM