Southern Green Stink Bug

Thanks for the updates. I have amended this spotting but just used the base Scientific name and put the two forms in the description. I have lots of older pictures of green bugs which will need checking and also other species which your website will be able to help me with once I have cleared my backlog. I always catch up in winter then get behind again after my travels..

Hi tmvdh, having previously been told months or perhaps years ago that these were all Palomena prasina I have not bothered to take measurements, but when I started t see really large ones with pink pronotums I started to measure. Looking through the last batch which have not been posted yet I found one all green which is only 9mm long, all the rest except one were 14mm long, the exception being 17mm long. Of those with pink pronotum one was 14mm long and all the rest 16-17.2m long. Wikipedia is specific on length of Nezara vilidura, being up to 12.1mm for male and 13.1mm for female (from front to elytral apex). Another site http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/veg/bean/southern_green_stink_bug.htm suggests 13.15mm for female, but this is still well short of the 16-17mm and short of the 14mm minimum I am seeing on most. Does this mean that I have different but very similar species here, or are those found here the same species but grow much larger here than in other parts of the world. My knowledge of these has been nil until now but my work in other fields was such that whenever I came across figures outside normal parameters it needed investigation as it indicated a potential problem.