Australasian Green Shield Bug

Glaucias amyoti

This shield bug was out at night on kohuhu (Pittosporum tenuifolium) in January. Initially I thought it might be a later stage of the soldier bug nymphs photographed in November, but it is the fifth and final instar nymph of a green shield bug which is native to the North Island and upper South, also being found in Australia and a bit further afield too.

A shield bug on kohuhu needs a bit of thought, as there is also a similar one which uses only Pittosporum as hosts. This was all sorted out in minutes on iNaturalist and in a nice article by N A Martin at Landcare.

The 5th instar shows developing wing buds- the downward continuations of the upper greenish area. There are several generations a year and nymphs of all sizes can be seen in the same spring or summer month. The very same host shrub also had several groups of first-instar nymphs clustered next to their egg cases:

You can see the splits in the egg cases that the nymphs hatched from (14 out of 14). This is a very common and underappreciated insect, like the others in this series of posts. I bet they are in your garden if you are within their range, but check the differences between them and the pest green vegetable bug and potato bug.