''Rhaphigaster nebulosa'', common name mottled shieldbug, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

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 ...

Distribution

This species is distributed throughout the

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Si ...

region, more commonly in the southern than in the northern parts of Central

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

(Austria, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom), and is not known to occur in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

.Insectoid
/ref>

Habitat

Mottled shieldbugs prefer warm deciduous forests, parks and gardens.

Description

''Rhaphigaster nebulosa'' can reach a length of . These large shieldbugs are hairless and coloured dirty yellowish-grey to brown with irregularly-distributed fovea on the top side of its body. The membrane of the forewings is often speckled dark brown, although these speckles are quite variable in extent. The lateral edge ( connexivum) of the abdomen has black and yellow markings. The antennae are ringed with black and yellow markings on the 3rd to 5th segments. The underside of the body is light coloured and shows dark spots. On its underside, between the hips (on the 1st sternite), there is a long spur or spine. This species is similar to ''

Dolycoris baccarum ''Dolycoris baccarum'', the sloe bug or hairy shieldbug, is a species of shield bug in the family Pentatomidae. Distribution and habitat This species is widespread in most of Europe and Central Asia. These shield bugs mainly inhabit hedgerows ...

'', but it lacks hairs. Other species of ''Rhaphigaster'' can be confused with this species. In ''R. nebulosa'', the spur on the underside is long enough to reach at least the anterior margin of the procoxae (shorter in ''R. brevispina''). The femurs, mainly the hind femurs, have an isolated black spot on the anteroventral side of the apical half (absent in ''R. haraldi''). The last tarsomere of each leg is largely blackish, and sometimes the first and second tarsomeres have brown or black apices (in ''R. haraldi'' all tarsomeres are pale).

Biology

Mottled shieldbugs are

polyphagous Feeding is the process by which organisms, typically animals, obtain food. Terminology often uses either the suffixes -vore, -vory, or -vorous from Latin ''vorare'', meaning "to devour", or -phage, -phagy, or -phagous from Greek φαγ� ...

, feeding on sap from a range of broadleaved woody plants such as

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 3 ...

and

hazel The hazel (''Corylus'') is a genus of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family Betulaceae,Germplasmgobills Information Network''Corylus''Rushforth, K. (1999 ...

(

Betulaceae Betulaceae, the birch family, includes six genera of deciduous nut-bearing trees and shrubs, including the birches, alders, hazels, hornbeams, hazel-hornbeam, and hop-hornbeams numbering a total of 167 species. They are mostly natives of ...

); ''

Arbutus ''Arbutus'' is a genus of 12 accepted speciesAct. Bot. Mex no.99 Pátzcuaro abr. 2012.''Arbutus bicolor''/ref> of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae, native to warm temperate regions of the Mediterranean, western Europe, the Canary Islan ...

'' (

Ericaceae The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with c.4250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it th ...

);

beech Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engl ...

and

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

(

Fagaceae The Fagaceae are a family of flowering plants that includes beeches, chestnuts and oaks, and comprises eight genera with about 927 species. Fagaceae in temperate regions are mostly deciduous, whereas in the tropics, many species occur as eve ...

);

plane tree ''Platanus'' is a genus consisting of a small number of tree species native to the Northern Hemisphere. They are the sole living members of the family Platanaceae. All mature members of ''Platanus'' are tall, reaching in height. All except ...

(

Platanaceae Platanaceae, the "plane-tree family", is a family of flowering plants in the order Proteales. The family consists of only a single extant genus ''Platanus'', with eight known species. The plants are tall trees, native to temperate and subtrop ...

);

hawthorn Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to: Plants * '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae * ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...

apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ances ...

plum A plum is a fruit of some species in ''Prunus'' subg. ''Prunus'.'' Dried plums are called prunes. History Plums may have been one of the first fruits domesticated by humans. Three of the most abundantly cultivated species are not found ...

and

whitebeam The whitebeams are members of the family Rosaceae, comprising subgenus ''Aria'' (or, according to some authorities, its own genus) of genus ''Sorbus'', and hybrids involving species of this subgenus and members of subgenera ''Sorbus'', ''Torminar ...

(

Rosaceae Rosaceae (), the rose family, is a medium-sized family of flowering plants that includes 4,828 known species in 91 genera. The name is derived from the type genus ''Rosa''. Among the most species-rich genera are '' Alchemilla'' (270), '' Sorbu ...

);

Johnson grass Johnson grass or Johnsongrass, ''Sorghum halepense'', is a plant in the grass family, Poaceae, native to Asia and northern Africa. The plant has been introduced to all continents except Antarctica, and most larger islands and archipelagos. It r ...

( Poaceae); poplar and

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist ...

(

Salicaceae The Salicaceae is the willow family of flowering plants. The traditional family (Salicaceae ''sensu stricto'') included the willows, poplar, aspen, and cottonwoods. Genetic studies summarized by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) have greatly ...

); and ''

Ulmus minor ''Ulmus minor'' Mill., the field elm, is by far the most polymorphic of the European species, although its taxonomy remains a matter of contention. Its natural range is predominantly south European, extending to Asia Minor and Iran; its northern ...

'' (

Ulmaceae The Ulmaceae () are a family of flowering plants that includes the elms (genus ''Ulmus''), and the zelkovas (genus ''Zelkova''). Members of the family are widely distributed throughout the north temperate zone, and have a scattered distribution ...

). They are also known to feed on freshly dead insects such as

leaf beetle The insects of the beetle family Chrysomelidae are commonly known as leaf beetles, and include over 37,000 (and probably at least 50,000) species in more than 2,500 genera, making up one of the largest and most commonly encountered of all beetle ...

larvae. In late spring, the female sticks around 40 eggs in lines or discs on different parts of plants. The young that hatch vary in colour and are flightless. Wing stumps are only recognisable after the third

nymph A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are ty ...

stage. To protect against predators, young bugs have stink glands on their back; in the case of adults, these are to be found on the underside of the

thorax The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans, mammals, and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main divisions of the ...

. If threatened, a strong-smelling secretion is released. Adults can be found all year. They are not good fliers; their sluggish flight makes loud humming noises. This species displays diurnal,

thermophilic A thermophile is an organism—a type of extremophile—that thrives at relatively high temperatures, between . Many thermophiles are archaea, though they can be bacteria or fungi. Thermophilic eubacteria are suggested to have been among the ear ...

activity. As with most Pentatomidae, it produces only one generation per year. It likes to overwinter on walls covered with

ivy ''Hedera'', commonly called ivy (plural ivies), is a genus of 12–15 species of evergreen climbing or ground-creeping woody plants in the family Araliaceae, native to western, central and southern Europe, Macaronesia, northwestern Africa and ...

. In its search for suitable winter quarters (splits and cracks) it often unwittingly finds its way into houses. This species produces a plethora of eggs when disturbed in its habitat. Angering or threatening the bug makes it produce an off-white colored secretion that can be harmful if swallowed. Chemicals in the secretion allow the eggs to continue to fertilize in any environment, even those that are highly acidic or basic. Eggs of ''R. nebulosa'', like those of some other stink bugs, are parasitised by the samurai wasp '' Trissolcus japonicus'' (

Scelionidae The hymenopteran family Scelionidae is a very large cosmopolitan group (over 3000 described species in some 176 genera) of exclusively parasitoid wasps, mostly small (0.5–10 mm), often black, often highly sculptured, with (typically) elbowe ...

Gallery

File: Pentatomidae - Rhaphigaster nebulosa.JPG, Dorsal view File:Rhaphigaster nebulosa MHNT profil.jpg, Side view File:Rhaphigaster nebulosa MHNT Ventre.jpg, Ventral side File:Chinche, Bastavales, Galiza 090815 1.jpg, Early instar nymph File:Eggs-of-Rhaphigaster-nebulosa-by-Maseltov.jpg, Eggs

References

*Ekkehard Wachmann: "Wanzen beobachten - kennenlernen." J. Neumann - Neudamm, Melsungen, 1989. {{Taxonbar, from=Q1416065 Pentatomidae Insects described in 1761 Hemiptera of Europe Taxa named by Nikolaus Poda von Neuhaus