#vegetable bug

AKA Rhaphigaster amyoti, Zangis stali, and Australasian Green Shield Bug.

A minor agricultural pest found in NZ, Australia, New Guinea, Timor and Indonesia. The adults are, as you might guess from the other common name, green.

Eggs may be parasitised by two species of tiny wasp belonging to the family Platygasteridae - Trissolcus oenone, native to New Zealand, and Trissolcus basalis released into New Zealand in 1949 to control the green vegetable bug, Nezara viridula. When this wider host range was discovered in the 1960s, it was regarded as beneficial because protection of crops was considered more important than protecting native insects.

The braconid wasp Aridelus rufotestaceus is also a parasitoid of the green vegetable bug, targeting the nymphs, but like T. basalis above has also been reared from the New Zealand Vegetable Bug.