| Pied Shieldbug (Tritomegas bicolor (Linnaeus, 1758)) |
|
|
Scientific name: Tritomegas bicolor (Linnaeus, 1758) Common name: Pied Shieldbug French name: Punaise noire à quatre taches blanches, Punaise pie. Order: Heteroptera Family: Cydnidae Wingspan : 5.5 to 7.5 mm. Biotope: Woodlands, woodland edges, hedgerows, next to host plants on which larvae feed, that's to say Dead-nettle (Lamium album) and Black Horehound (Balotta nigra). Geographic area: Europe, North Africa, Central Asia. Observation period : February to September. |
The Pied Shieldbug is a general oval shape. Head and scutellum are black. Pronotum and hemelytra are black with white spots. The membranous part of the hemelytra is dark. The legs are spiny. There is a possible confusion with Tritomegas sexmaculatus and Tritomegas rotundipennis. Tritomegas sexmaculatus shows lateral edges of pronotum almost entirely bordered with white. This border tapers to a fine point towards the back. The white markings of Tritomegas bicolor do not extend more than half the length of the lateral edges of the pronotum. Tritomegas rotundipennis has a white border of the pronotum of about the same length as Tritomegas bicolor. This white border ends abruptly on Tritomegas rotundipennis while its posterior end is bordered with black on Tritomegas bicolor. Tritomegas bicolor also often shows a small white spot near the posterior angle of the pronotum. This white spot is always missing on Tritomegas rotundipennis. Finally, if you have a view of the underside, the tibiae show white rings on Tritomegas rotundipennis, rings which are replaced by a simple external spot on Tritomegas bicolor. |
| [To know more about the Pied Shieldbug] [Top] |
|
You can guess a black border on the hind edge of the pronotum's white border and you can see a small white spot near the posterior angle. All this indicate Tritomegas bicolor. |
André Bon January 2022
Home
Home