Sluggin' Along: Negro Bug

Though "negro" simply means "black," I'm a little surprised that, in this age of hypersensitivity about race and worry over offending people, entomologists still use the term to describe the members of Thyreocoridae. I personally don't have a problem with it, but I thought I'd point it out.

Anyway, Negro Bugs are shiny black, broad oval-shaped bugs. They are placed in the superfamily Pentatomoidea (along with Stink Bugs) because their antennae have 5 segments (penta = 5). Their tibiae are devoid of spines, though these do have setae. They have a large, raised scutellum which covers most of the abdomen and wings (in contrast to, say, Cydnidae, Burrowing Bugs, which have a smaller, triangular scutellum between the wings). This feature may lead to a mistaken ID as a beetle, but all you have to do is look at the segmented antennae, and you know it's not a beetle.

This afternoon I found a specimen on some monkey grass. It belongs to either the genus Corimelaena or Galgupha. C. lateralis and C. pulicaria have a pale stripe on the corium, but you can't see one in the photos below, so it could be C. obscura. If not then it must be a species of Galgupha. These bugs can be very destructive to vegetables and berry plants, so keep an eye on them.