• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Tom Saunders

PhD Candidate

  • Home
  • About
  • Publications
  • Awards
  • Media
  • Outreach
  • Contact

How to separate BMSB from NZ stink bugs

November 6, 2018 By Tom 2 Comments

Brown marmorated stink bug is a serious horticultural pest native to East Asia. It damages crops, infests ornamental plants, and seeks out shelter over the winter causing massive problems for homes and businesses. Fortunately we don’t have it in New Zealand yet, but in order to keep it out we need to know what it looks like. In this post I show you how to tell it apart from other New Zealand stink bugs.

First an important reminder: If you believe you may have found BMSB the best thing to do is to catch the bug, keep it alive, and call MPI on 0800 80 99 66.

When entomologists talk about ‘bugs,’ generally they mean the Hemiptera, a group of insects that share sucking mouthparts. Within the Hemiptera, stink bugs are members of the family Pentatomidae. Stink bugs are not beetles, they are ‘true bugs.’

In New Zealand we have 8 species of stink bug:

1. Cermatulus nasalis (made up of three subspecies)
Brown soldier bug – Cermatulus nasalis nasalis
Alpine brown soldier bug – Cermatulus nasalis hudsoni
Three Kings soldier bug – Cermatulus nasalis turbotti
2. Schellenberg’s soldier bug – Oechalia schellenbergii
3. Brown shield bug – Dictyotus caenosus
4. Pittosporum shield bug – Monteithiella humeralis
5. Alpine shield bug – Hypsithocus hudsonae
6. Green vegetable bug – Nezara viridula
7. Australasian green shield bug – Glaucias amyoti
8. Green potato bug – Cuspicona simplex

First up, lets have a look at BMSB:

Brown marmorated stink bug adult. Note the white banding on the both the legs and antennae, the stripes around the abdominal margin, and the ‘marmorated’ or marbled colouration. Image courtesy Kiwifruit Vine Health.

Two New Zealand species look similar to brown marmorated stink bug. These are Cermatulus nasalis and Dictyotus caenosus.

Brown soldier bug (Cermatulus nasalis nasalis), native to New Zealand but also present in Australia and Timor. A predator of other insects, especially the larval stages of moths and butterflies (caterpillars). Image © Landcare Research (CC-BY 4.0)

Brown shield bug (Dictyotus caenosus), introduced from Australia. Usually seen feeding on plantain grass or lucerne. Image © Landcare Research (CC-BY 4.0)

The key characters to look for when separating these two species from BMSB are a combination of size, banding and colouration.

Here is a side by side comparison of BMSB (on the left) with Cermatulus nasalis:

This species is the one most likely to be confused with BMSB, and it’s no wonder when you try to compare them above.

The white banding present on the antennae of BMSB is the most obvious way to separate these species, but BMSB is also a little bit larger (19mm long vs 17mm), and coloured slightly differently to Cermatulus nasalis.

Here is a side by side comparison of BMSB (on the left) with Dictyotus caenosus:

Again, the white banding on the antennae can be used to immediately separate these species. But you can also see that Dictyotus caenosus has a more pronounced notch in the top of the head and behind the eyes, than BMSB. Dictyotus caenosus is also quite a bit smaller, normally around 10mm long.

These two species are the ones most likely to be confused with BMSB in New Zealand.

But remember: If you do find a stink bug and you’re not sure what it is, the best thing to do is to catch the bug, keep it alive, and call MPI on 0800 80 99 66. Better to be safe than sorry with BMSB.

Other resources:

MPI BMSB Factsheet
Landcare Research stink bug ID tool

Filed Under: Factsheets Tagged With: biosecurity, BMSB, brown marmorated stink bug, brown shield bug, brown soldier bug, cermatulus nasalis, cuspicona simplex, dictyotus caenosus, glaucias amyoti, halyomorpha halys, hypsithocus hudsonae, identification, insects, invasive species, monteithiella humeralis, new zealand, nezara viridula, oechalia schellenbergii, pentatomidae, pests, species ID, stink bugs, stinkbug, stinkbugs, taxonomy

Previous Post: « One year of blogging!
Next Post: Spread the knowledge with Wikipedia »

Reader Interactions

You might also enjoy...

Updates: Conference, podcast, illustrations
My PhD project in a nut shell
My first teaching resource & recent media

Comments

  1. Lesley Turner

    August 30, 2019 at 8:56 am

    I have found what looks like a stink bug. Same shape etc. I put it in a container last night and this morning it is dead. Where do I send it to have it identified. I live at Bannockburn in Central Otago.

    Reply
    • Tom

      August 30, 2019 at 12:31 pm

      Hi Lesley,

      I’ve emailed you a reply to make sure you see it.

      For others reading: The best thing to do if you find a suspicious looking stink bug is to catch it in a container and call MPI on their pest & disease hotline: 0800 80 99 66

      They will instruct you what to do next, or they may send someone out to collect the sample.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Hi!
I'm a PhD candidate in the School of Biological Sciences at The University of Auckland. My research focuses on improving the methods used to test biological control agents for their potential non-target impacts.

Follow me on Twitter →
Read about my research →

Tags

academic publishing biodiversity biological control biosecurity BMSB brown marmorated stink bug figshare GC-EAD github halyomorpha halys hymenoptera hypsithocus hudsonae landcare research Lusius malfoyi media native species new zealand open access open data open education open science parasitoid parasitoid wasp peer review pentatomidae phd Plant & Food Research post-print reference manager research samurai wasp scholarly publishing scicomm science science communication science learning hub species description taxonomy tom saunders trissolcus japonicus university university of auckland wasp wasps zotero

Copyright © 2019 · Tom Saunders