Jewel Bug (nymph)

The bugs shown here look exactly like Chrysocoris stolli nymphs from the Family Scutelleridae. This kind of Bug is common, in this part of the Philippines, and I have observed it on a number of different plants (including Jatropha podagrica, mentioned in Habitat). However, they favour Jack Fruit trees (Artocarpus heterophyllus) above all others, to the extent that I can pretty much guarantee that they can be seen on our Jack Fruits in September and October every year. There is just one small problem, which pops up every time I spot this insect and that is the “dreaded distribution”. Like many citizen scientists, I sometimes feel frustrated when I see a bug that I can’t fully identify because it has not been formally documented as present in the country where I have observed it. Of course, we all know that scientific documentation is of paramount importance and everything would degenerate into a complete mess, if we did not adhere to it. Nonetheless, I occasionally come across articles which deal with the subject rather poorly and I read one every time I see this bug. It is an article in Wikipedia which states “Verified records are available from Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam; literature records from Korea, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Indonesia are erroneous.” If this article is meant to educate us, should it not tell us why the literature records from the last four countries are erroneous. Is it (A) because the bug in these countries is not scientifically documented or (B) it is a different bug. If the answer is (A), we will know to call it Chrysocoris sp. or maybe just Scutelleridae, but if the answer is (B), we have no idea what to call it. The author of that article is obviously erudite and by just providing a little more information, we would all be enriched by his/her knowledge, but by stopping at the word “erroneous” he/she has abandoned us to our ignorance. So, why write the article at all. I have assumed that the answer was (A) and have called this Chrysocoris sp.