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Green Vegetable Bug

Nezara viridula

Photo by John B.
Published on Project Noah
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15.4557, 119.92

Field Notes

Description:

Pentatomidae; Pentatominae; Nezara viridula (Linnaeus, 1778). I think the first photo shows an adult male. If you look at the end of its abdomen, you will see a pair of claspers, just protruding from under the wing tips. If so, then it is a male. The others, in the group of four, appear to be female adults. However, I have to say that I am unsure about this. I have read descriptions of these claspers, but have not yet seen any pictures.

Habitat:

These Green Vegetable Bugs were spotted, in our vegetable plot, on String beans (Vigna unguiculata), known as Sitaw, in the Philippines. Plant information from http://www.stuartxchange.org/Sitaw.....

Notes:

The Nezara viridula, shown here, were all spotted at the same time, on the same String Bean plant and only a few inches apart. As you can see, the bug in the first photo is solitary, whereas the other four are huddled together. The nymphs of this species tend to cluster together as in https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/312755454..... and https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/2061269766..... but, until I took the pictures for this spotting, I had not noticed that adults seem to display similar behaviour. Perhaps it is just that all of these bugs eventually "go it alone", like the one in my first photo, but the group shown in the other photos might be a day or two younger and are not yet ready to go their separate ways. On a slightly light-hearted note, when I took these pictures, I was wondering if there is a collective name for these bugs, as there is for many other creatures. We talk about "a murder of crows" or a 'pandemonium of parrots'. So, how about a "fragrance of stink bugs" :-)

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