Insects at Olive Pink Botanic GardenAustraliphthiria (Bee Fly) Ground Shield Bug (Choerocoris paganus) Laced Day-Moth (Ipanica cornigera) Yellow Hairy Flower Wasp (Radumeris tasmaniensis)
— see Olive Pink Botanic Garden | Birds | Insects | Spiders ◦
Olive Pink Botanic Garden
This shiny, small bug Choerocoris paganus, commonly known as the Ground Shield Bug or Red Jewel Bug is a species of “true bug”.
The adults and nymphs of this species feed primarily on the sappy contents of seeds of the hop-bush (Dodonaea viscosa), as pictured here in the Olive Pink Botanic Garden in Alice Springs.
The adult bug of the species pictured here is orange-red in colour with the dark black-blue patches that look almost metallic in colour under certain light conditions. Others of the species can be deep blue, areas of crimson blotched with blue on scutellum covering the abdomen. The body surface is pitted, the antennae filamentous, with a body length of 1 cm.
- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Subphylum: Hexapoda
- Class: Insecta
- Informal: Pterygotes
- Order: Hemiptera
- Suborder: Heteroptera
- Infraorder: Pentatomomorpha
- Superfamily: Pentatomoidea
- Family: Scutelleridae
- Subfamily: Scutellerinae
- Genus: Choerocoris
- Species: Choerocoris paganus
Footnote & References
- Choerocoris paganus (Fabricius, 1775), Ground Shield Bug, Atlas of Living Australia, https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/54d8a8b2-debc-40ef-b934-129951b15d81
Insects at Olive Pink Botanic GardenAustraliphthiria (Bee Fly) Ground Shield Bug (Choerocoris paganus) Laced Day-Moth (Ipanica cornigera) Yellow Hairy Flower Wasp (Radumeris tasmaniensis)