Green stink bug

The species was previously placed in the genus Acrosternum but has been classified as in the genus Chinavia in the more recent literature (e.g., Schwertner and Grazia, 2006).

Green stink bug

The green stink bug's color is typically bright green, with narrow yellow, orange, or reddish edges. It is a large, shield-shaped bug with an elongate, oval form and a length between 13–18 mm. It can be differentiated from the species Nezara viridula by its black outermost three antennal segments. Its anterolateral (= in front and away from the middle) pronotal margin is rather straight and not strongly arced such as in Chinavia pensylvanica.

Green stink bug on a Lily.

Both adults and nymphs have large stink glands on the underside of the thorax extending more than half-way to the edge of the metapleuron. They discharge large amounts of this foul-smelling liquid when disturbed. This liquid, dried and pulverized, was once used at industrial level to reinforce the smell of some acids. Now it's been replaced by artificial composites.

It is found in orchards, gardens, woodlands and crop fields throughout North America,[1] feeding with their needle-like mouthparts on the juices of a wide variety of plants from May until the arrival of frost. Adults develop a preference for developing seeds and thus become crop pests (tomato, bean, pea, cotton, corn, soybean, eggplant). When no seeds are present, they also feed on stems and foliage, thus damaging several fruit trees, such as the apple, cherry, orange and peach trees. Moreover, it can be found in Queensland and New South Wales, Australia. Green stink bugs bred well on bonfire salvia as well as tomatoes and mulberry. Also it has been found on peaches, apricots, grapes, silver beet and french beans. The difference here is that they don't seem to be a pest for them.[2]

Nymph, early instar

Adults appear in the field early September and become plentiful in sheltered positions. Then, mating happens in early October and finally, the eggs can be found mid to late October. Nymphs appear in late October and early November. Two or three generations occur in the summer months in the field and in the laboratory at 26 °C.[2]

They attach their keg-shaped eggs on the underside of foliage in double rows of twelve eggs or more. The green stink bug produces one generation in the North and two generations in the South. The early instar nymphs are rather brightly colored and striped, turning green when approaching adulthood. The eggs are usually laid in clusters of 14 (some clusters contain fewer eggs, with 9 being the smallest number recorded out of 77 observations). The eggs are laid either on the undersurfaces of leaves or on the stems of plants or on the flowers of salvia.[2]

Eggs parasitized by Trissolcus sp. wasp

It is parasitized by the tachinid fly Trichopoda pennipes[3] and by parasitic wasps.[4]

The green stink bug uses the pheromone methyl (E,Z,Z)-2,4,6-decatrienoate in its communication system and this may be used to attract the bug away from crop fields.[5]

• Shield bug
• Pentatomidae

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Acrosternum hilare.

• Chinavia hilaris BugGuide. Iowa State University Entomology. Retrieved 6 October 2010.
• Lorus and Margery Milne : National Audubon Society : Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders; Alfred A. Knopf, New York, fourteenth printing, 1996; ISBN 0-394-50763-0
• McPherson, J.E. (1982). The Pentatomoidea (Hemiptera) of Northeastern North America. Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 978-0-8093-1040-1.
• Schwertner, C. F. and J. Grazia. 2006. Descrição de seis espécies de Chinavia (Hemiptera, Pentatomidae, Pentatominae) da América do Sul. Iheringia (Zool.) 96(2): 237-248.

• Chinavia hilaris, green stink bug on the University of Florida / Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Featured Creatures website