#pentatomidae

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'.

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.

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.

Minstrel bug on forget me nots - not a random choice, today is ME awareness day, and forget me nots are widely used as the symbol. We might be missing from the outside world, but forget us not, please - we want to live. We need biomedical research and an end to the abusive use of GET and CBT, we need a cure.

(Graphosoma italicum, on Myosotis spec., M. sylvatica probably)