Stink bugs Pentatomidae may be notorious for their pungent defense mechanism, but they are also a fascinating group of insects with a wide variety of species. From the infamous brown marmorated stink bug to the helpful spined soldier bug, each species possesses its own unique characteristics and habits. Let’s explore 20 types of stink bugs now!
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Brown marmorated stink bug (Halyomorpha halys)
Brown marmorated stink bug is one of the most notorious types of stink bugs. Originally from Asia, it has made its way to various countries, including Europe and North America. This invasive species is a major threat to agriculture, feeding on a wide variety of crops such as fruits, vegetables, and ornamental plants. Its presence not only causes significant economic losses but also poses challenges for pest management due to its resilience and ability to quickly reproduce. If you want to know more about this bug, here are interesting facts about the brown marmorated stink bug.
Southern green stink bug (Nezara viridula)
The southern green stink bug, originally from Ethiopia, now thrives worldwide in warm and moderate climates, even in cold areas with greenhouses. These large shield-shaped bugs, typically dull green but turning brownish in cooler temperatures, measure about 13 mm long. They have 3-5 light spots on their front, dark red or black eyes, alternating dark and light antennal segments, and small black spots on their sides.
These insects are pests, feeding on various crops like beans, tomatoes, berries, and sweet peppers. They also cause damage to soybeans, tobacco, and peaches.
Green shield bug (Palomena prasina)
The green shield bug is a native insect found all over Britain, especially in the south of England. During spring and summer, they’re usually a bright green color. However, as winter approaches, they might develop dark marks, turning into a darker bronze-brown shade before hibernation.
This species is often confused with the southern green stink bug above. You can tell them apart by looking at their backs. The common one has three to five white spots and two black spots. Also, the wing membrane at the back of the insect is lighter in the southern species but darker in the green shield bug.
Man-faced stink bug (Catacanthus incarnatus)
Among 21 stink bug species on the list, the man-faced stink bug has the most outstanding appearance. Its tough shield has a unique face pattern on it, helping it scare away predators. The bug comes in different colors such as red, yellow, orange, and cream.
In the wild, these bugs gather in large groups on fruit and flame trees, causing damage to crops like cotton, corn, soybeans, and cashews. They’re a big problem for agriculture because they resist pesticides and can attract more stink bugs with pheromones.
Lately, they’ve started showing up in the United States, where they invade homes in large numbers during colder months. Dealing with them is tricky; they move slowly, are hard to kill, and if not disposed of properly, their fluids and stink smells can attract other pests.
Two-spotted stink bug (Perillus bioculatus)
The two-spotted stink bug is a helpful insect from North America. You can easily spot it because of its contrasting look with black and red or orange colors, with two spots on its body and a keyhole shape on its back. The adults measure about 10 mm long and have a shield-like shape.
These bugs eat different kinds of slow-moving insects, like sawflies, caterpillars, and beetle larvae. They’re especially good at keeping the larvae of the Colorado potato beetle under control, which is a big problem for farmers.
Spined soldier bug (Podisus maculiventris)
Similar to the two-spotted stink bug, the spined soldier bug is also a predatory stink bug. These predators might get mixed up with stink bugs that munch on plants, like the brown stink bug. But, they stand out with spiky bits sticking out from their “shoulders.” Unlike the plant-eating types, their wing tips usually stretch way past their body, and there’s often a dark line where the wings meet.
These medium-sized predators sport a hefty, robust beak compared to the slender ones of plant-eating stink bugs. They keep their beak tucked under their body when not eating. Both the young and grown-ups munch on pests like fall armyworms, tobacco budworms, soybean loopers, bollworms, and beet armyworms. They’re not picky eaters either; they’ll chow down on other predatory bugs and even their own kind.
Florida predatory stink bug (Euthyrhynchus floridanus)
The Florida predatory stink bug is a helpful insect that hunts other bugs, like beetles and caterpillars, which can harm plants. You can mostly find them in the southeastern part of the United States. These bugs often team up to attack bigger prey and have a cool way of defending themselves by wagging their bodies. You can find them on different plants, they don’t really damage those plants. Instead, they help keep those pesky plant-eating bugs in check.
Green stink bug (Chinavia hilaris)
This stink bug type stands out with its vibrant green color and distinctive shape—a large, shield-like body that’s elongated and oval, typically measuring between 13 and 18 millimeters in length. One key feature that sets it apart from similar stink bugs with green color is its outermost three antennal segments, which are black. You can find these bugs in various places across North America, including orchards, gardens, woodlands, and crop fields.
Green stink bugs are not picky eaters either. They eat seeds and fruits from a wide range of crops such as peas, tomatoes, soybeans, beans, apples, cotton, eggplants, cherries, oranges, and peaches. Because of this, they pose a significant economic threat to the US.
Conchuela bug (Chlorochroa ligata)
The Conchuela stink bug is a common pest found in Central and North America. The bug measures about 14-15 mm long and has a dark olive green to black color with a red border and spot near the end of its abdomen.
This stink bug has a broad diet, but it particularly likes seeds and fruits. It often invades cotton fields. Among crops, it prefers alfalfa seed or mature sorghum over cotton. In desert areas, it’s drawn to mesquite, where you might see it gathered in large groups on mesquite seed pods during summer. It also enjoys lush fields and peach trees. This bug is a significant economic pest in America.
Rice stink bug (Oebalus pugnax)
The rice stink bug is a big problem for rice farmers in Florida, Louisiana, and Arkansas. In Louisiana, these bugs are the second most troublesome pests for rice. They breed several times on grasses in and around rice fields.
When rice plants start to grow grains, these bugs come in and start eating them. Both young bugs and grown-ups poke the grains with their mouthparts and suck out the juices. This makes the grains turn empty or wrinkled when they’re still young, and when they’re getting ripe, they become weak and damaged, sometimes even getting black spots.
You can recognize these bugs by their long, arrowhead-shaped bodies. They’re usually a solid straw color, tan, or light brown, with a lighter triangle shape on their backs. These species love rice, but they also like similar plants like sedge, corn, and johnson grass.
Harlequin bug (Murgantia histrionica)
The harlequin bug, known for its striking orange and black or red and black colors, lives in the Southern United States, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This species is also known by various names like calico bug, harlequin cabbage bug, and fire bug. It loves plants from the Brassicae family, such as broccoli, kohlrabi, cabbage, kale, collards, Brussels sprouts, mustard, radish, cauliflower, and turnips. But it doesn’t stop there; it can also bother other crops like cantaloupe, beans, tomatoes, and more.
Yellow spotted stink bug (Erthesina fullo)
The stink bug comes from Asia, especially places like Vietnam, Japan, Taiwan, and China. It’s black with yellow spots and lines on its head and body, and its legs have yellow bands. This bug isn’t picky about what it eats—it snacks on more than 57 different plants like apples kiwi, peaches, pears, and pomegranates. But here’s the problem: it might invade other places and cause big issues for their plants.
Black stink bug (Proxys punctulatus)
The black stink bug comes from the Caribbean Sea, Central America, and North America. It’s a small bug, about 11-13 mm long, mostly black with a yellow spot at the back. Its legs are black and cream-colored. These colors might warn predators that it’s not tasty to eat, a trick called aposematism.
As for its diet, the black stink bug isn’t picky—it eats both plant juices and insect larvae. You can find it hanging out on various plants like soybeans, blackberries, cotton, spiderwort, and citrus trees.
Red-banded stink bug (Piezodorus guildinii)
This type of stink bug comes from the neotropical regions. It’s a real headache for soybean farmers in the southeastern United States. What makes matters worse is that it’s not easily killed by insecticides like other stink bugs are, so farmers have a tough time getting rid of them.
You can spot these little troublemakers by their looks. Grown-up ones are light green with a reddish stripe on their back where the thorax and abdomen meet. They’re smaller than other common stink bugs you might find, and their nymphs are green and kind of squished looking, with a mix of red and black spots on their back. If you’re trying to tell if one’s an adult, check for a little spike on its belly. That’s a sure sign it’s a red-banded stink bug.
Rough stink bug (Brochymena)
The rough stink bug, belonging to the genus Brochymena, is a type of stink bug often seen in North America. You can easily mistake them for the brown marmorated stink bug, which is an invasive species. But you can tell them apart by looking at the rough or jagged edge on the front of their thorax, which is why they’re called “rough” stink bugs.
These bugs eat plants and other insects, and during winter, they usually stay outdoors under loose bark or in cozy spots. Even though they seem similar, if you spot lots of stink bugs near homes, they’re more likely the invasive brown marmorated stink bugs than the native rough stink bugs.
Red-shouldered stink bug (Thyanta custator)
The red-shouldered stink bug usually looks green but can also be brown. It has a pinkish border near its head. This pink part can be really dark, kind of faint, or not there at all. Some have black spots on their abdomen. They have long antennae. These bugs are about a third of an inch long when they’re grown-ups. They’re originally from North America.
These stink bugs like to munch on different crops like apples, beans, tomatoes, peaches, pistachios, almonds, corn, pears, and wheat.
Jade stink bug (Banasa euchlora)
These little green bugs are often called juniper stink bugs. They’re found on fancy bushes and trees, especially ones in the Pea family. They snack on the plant’s inner tissues, making spots on leaves and fruit that look like they’ve been chewed up. You can spot them easily by their deep green color, with hints of light green or yellow on their wings and body. Even their bellies have green markings, and their antennas are all green too.
These species live in Utah and other parts of North America. They mostly eat plants, but sometimes they’ll nibble on soft-bodied bugs like caterpillars or beetle larvae.
Anchor stink bug (Stiretrus anchorago)
The anchor stink bug is a species of predatory stink bug found in North America. It lives all the way from New England and Ontario down to Florida and Mexico, and it can even be found as far west as Iowa, Kansas, and Texas. You’ll often spot them in open places like old fields or farmland, where they munch on plant-eating bugs.
This species stands out thanks to its shield-shaped body with a cool anchor-like pattern on the underside. Its colors can vary from dark green to black, with either three red spots or a red bottom half.
These bugs live a solid life and are always on the move, searching for prey. They feast on both beetle and moth larvae, which helps keep pest populations in check. Their stinky scent acts as a defense mechanism against predators.
Twice-stabbed stink bug (Cosmopepla lintneriana)
The next stink bug species is the twice-stabbed stink bug. This insect has a distinctive appearance, with a black body featuring red, orange, or yellow markings on its pronotum and scutellum. Their nymphs start off with red to white coloring and black markings, which evolve as they grow.
The bugs eat a range of plants like asparagus, milk thistle, mint, echinacea, oats, and goldenrod. They are found all over North America, from Canada to Mexico, in many different habitats.
Green burgundy stink bug (Banasa dimidiata)
The last one on our list is the green burgundy stink bug or Banasa stink bug or red-backed stink bug. You can find it around trees and shrubs all over the United States, especially in Columbia County, Oregon.
This species is quite small, about 8 – 11 mm in length. It comes in different colors, ranging from green to a reddish burgundy. Its body has a mix of these colors, with the front part being more green and the back part more red. It has big, triangular wings, with the ones in the front being longer than the ones in the back. The head is reddish with darker spots.
Those are 20 different kinds of stink bugs, divided into two groups: pests and predatory bugs. Regardless of which group they belong to, each stink bug has its own unique appearance with different colors and features. Have you ever spotted them in your garden?
