''Steganocerus multipunctatus'' Thunberg 1783, or ladybird bug, is a

Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...

n member of the

Hemiptera Hemiptera (; ) is an order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising more than 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, assassin bugs, bed bugs, and shield bugs. They range in size from ...

with a strong resemblance to a

Ladybird Coccinellidae () is a widespread family of small beetles. They are commonly known as ladybugs in North America and ladybirds in the United Kingdom; "lady" refers to mother Mary. Entomologists use the names ladybird beetles or lady beetles ...

. It is normally black with bright orange spots, but is quite variable in colour and may be brown without spots. It shares

Müllerian mimicry Müllerian mimicry is a natural phenomenon in which two or more well-defended species, often foul-tasting and sharing common predators, have come to mimicry, mimic each other's honest signal, honest aposematism, warning signals, to their mutuali ...

with the

Tortoise beetle The Cassidinae (tortoise and leaf-mining beetles) are a subfamily of the leaf beetles, or Chrysomelidae. The antennae arise close to each other and some members have the pronotal and Elytron, elytral edges extended to the side and covering the le ...

'' Chiridopsis suffriani'', and a spider '' Paraplectana thorntoni''. ''S. multipunctatus'' is one of the Rhynchota whose presence has been recorded on a wide range of indigenous plants and cultivated crops such as

cotton Cotton (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

.http://www.cabdirect.org/abstracts/19260500610.html;jsessionid=3A2214C8CB10B9790C8B4903A073D036

References

External links

Images on Project NoahImages on iSpot"Revision of the Rhynchota belonging to the family Pentatomidae in the Hope collection at Oxford"
- W. L. Distant
"Ad cognitionem Heteropterorum Africae occidentalis"
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Odo Morannal Reuter Odo Morannal Reuter (28 April 1850 – 2 September 1913) was a Swedo-Finnish zoologist and poet. He was a specialist on the heteropteran bugs. Early life Reuter was born in Åbo on 28 April 1850, and died there on 2 September 1913. Reuter becam ...

"Enumeratio Hemipterorum. Bidrag till en förteckning öfver alla hittills kända Hemiptera, jemte systematiska meddelanden"
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Carl Stål Carl Stål (21 March 1833 – 13 June 1878) was a Swedish people, Swedish entomologist specialising in Hemiptera. He was born at Karlberg Castle, Stockholm on 21 March 1833 and died at Frösundavik near Stockholm on 13 June 1878. He was the son ...

{{Taxonbar, from=Q22286534 Scutelleridae Hemiptera of Africa