#cuspicona

Now for a couple of Cuspicona that for some reason I haven't discussed before - as you might guess from the specific epithet, which means 'Swan Land', it's endemic to Western Australia.

Another Cuspicona from Western Australia, although this one is more common in the Eastern states. The epithet comes from the Latin for 'fleshy' or 'pinkish'.

Named for the pointed shoulders - Cuspis meaning "point" or "spear" - and simplex meaning "simple," "plain," or "uncompounded". First described by Francis Walker in 1867.

A species native to Australia, where it's a pest, and accidentally introduced to New Zealand, where it doesn't have the same range of parasites and predators, but see the biocontrol information below.

The feed on nightshades, for the most part (and occasonally on raspberries, oddly) which would be of little concern if the nightshades didn't include tomatoes, potatoes, poroporo, eggplants, and peppers.

Younger instars are black and white, gaining more colour as they moult.

A few species are known to parasitise them - a braconid wasp, Aridelus sp., and a tachinid fly, Alophora sp. have been found feeding on older nymphs - but egg parasites may prove more useful. The Scelionid wasp Trissolcus basalis was introduced in Australia and New Zealand as a biocontrol against green vegetable bug (Nezara viridula), but targets the green potato bug and various native shield bugs as well. This is not ideal. The second, Trissolcus oenone, is native to both Australia and New Zealand, but is poorly studied.

Eggs parasitised by these wasps turn black - entirely black for basalis, and black in a ring around the top of the egg for oenone.

The third species recorded laying its eggs inside potato bug eggs is an undescribed species of Pteromalid in Acroclisoides, but its probably parasitising the Trissolcus larvae that are already inside.

Small green stink bug with red shoulders and spot. Jarrahdale, and Rockingham, Perth. Possible Cuspicona?

The Friends of Queens Park have this species IDed as Nezara viridula, but I have my doubts - the Green Vegetable Bug is a larger stink bug, and doesn't have the red stripe and spot that this one does.Cuspicona, the genus that includes the Wild Tobacco Bug, seems a closer match, but this one lacks the very pointy shoulders that are a feature of most of the Cuspicona I've looked at.

Found one up in Jarrahdale, and more recently, in Rockingham. Both times on lavender, which just goes to show that the advice that planting lavender will keep stinkbugs away, at least as far as it goes with this species, is a load of balls.

Cuspicona apothoracica, or something very like it.

All the twenty-plus Australian Cuspicona I've found online have the spiky shoulders (as do many other in the Rhynchocorini Tribe) but only this green stink bug, found from Queensland to Victoria judging by the photos, has the two bands across the shoulders and the light band down the middle.