Species Zicrona caerulea

Classification · Other Common Names · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Range · Food · Remarks · Internet References · Works Cited

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Hemiptera (True Bugs, Cicadas, Hoppers, Aphids and Allies)

Suborder Heteroptera (True Bugs)

Infraorder Pentatomomorpha

Superfamily Pentatomoidea

Family Pentatomidae (Stink Bugs)

Subfamily Asopinae (Predatory Stink Bugs)

Genus Zicrona

Species caerulea (Zicrona caerulea)

Other Common Names

Blue Shieldbug (UK)

Explanation of Names

Zicrona caerulea (Linnaeus 1758)

Numbers

4.5-9 mm(1)(2)

Range

w. NA to ME & QC - Map (3)(4), tends to be more northern than Z. americana (D.B. Thomas, pers.comm. to =v=, 1.iii.2013)

New information includes records of Z. americana as far north as Alaska, so north/south is less useful than east/west now. If in the east, we can be fairly confident that it is Z. caerulea (5).

Food

prefers leaf beetle larvae, particularly Altica (Chrysomelidae)(6)

Remarks

very common in much of Eurasia, not so in America

Internet References

British Bugs (Bantock & Botting 2010)(6)

Works Cited

1.	Keys to the insects of the Far East of the USSR, Vol. 2. Homoptera and Heteroptera Lehr, P. A., ed. 1988. Leningrad, Nauka Publishing House.

2.	The Pentatomoidea (Hemiptera) of Northeastern North America J.E. McPherson. 1982. Southern Illinois University Press.

3.	Catalog of the Heteroptera, or True Bugs of Canada and the Continental United States Thomas J. Henry, Richard C. Froeschner. 1988. Brill Academic Publishers.

4.	Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)

5.	A distributional synopsis of the Pentatomidae (Heteroptera) north of Mexico, including new state and provincial records Rider, D.A. and Swanson, D.R. 2021. Zootaxa, 5015(1), 1–69.

6.	Bantock T., Botting J. (2010‒) British Bugs, an online identification guide to UK Hemiptera

Contributed by v belov on 1 March, 2013 - 9:34am
Additional contributions by Andrew Meeds, Mike Quinn
Last updated 26 September, 2023 - 12:33pm

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