''Mormidea lugens'' is a species of stink bug in the family
Pentatomidae
Pentatomidae is a family of insects belonging to the order Hemiptera, generally called shield bugs or stink bugs. Pentatomidae is the largest family in the superfamily Pentatomoidea, and contains around 900 genera and over 4700 species.Robert ...
found in the Caribbean, Central America, and Eastern North America.
In
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Roc ...
, adults have been observed emerging from overwintering sites in late April, and continue to be observed until early November, and appear to be
bivoltine in this area.
Eggs are approximately in
diameter
In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints lie on the circle. It can also be defined as the longest chord of the circle. Both definitions are also valid fo ...
, pale yellow, and laid in small clusters of 6 to 11 eggs (
mean
There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value ( magnitude and sign) of a given data set.
For a data set, the '' ari ...
= 9.6).
Adults are bronze in color, with a white-yellow border around the
scutellum,
and are in length.
In laboratory conditions, at approximately , development from eggs to adults has been documented to take between 39 and 50 days, and appears to be affected by the species of host plant.
''Mormidea lugens'' has been documented to feed on
timothy,
sedges
The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' wi ...
(including ''
Carex shortiana'', ''
C. amphibola'', ''
C. normalis''), as well as deer-tongue grass (''
Panicum
''Panicum'' (panicgrass) is a large genus of about 450 species of grasses native throughout the tropical regions of the world, with a few species extending into the northern temperate zone. They are often large, annual or perennial grasses, grow ...
clandestinum''), and Bosc's panic-grass (''P. boscii''). It has been collected from pale sedge (''
C. blanda'') and wide-leaved spiderwort (''
Tradescantia
''Tradescantia'' () is a genus of 85 species of herbaceous perennial wildflowers in the family Commelinaceae, native to the Americas from southern Canada to northern Argentina, including the West Indies. Members of the genus are known by many com ...
subaspera'') but has not observed feeding on these species, and deer-tongue grass appears to be an insufficient food source for development.
References
Further reading
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External links
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Insects described in 1775
Taxa named by Johan Christian Fabricius
Pentatomini
{{Pentatomidae-stub