Diet

• Adults and nymphs: Primarily plant feeders, using their piercing-sucking mouthparts to feed on sap from leaves, stems, fruits and developing seeds.

• Euschistus servus is extremely polyphagous, with host records covering roughly 70 plant species in 25 families.

• Recorded food plants include corn, soybean, cotton, beans, alfalfa, clover, tomato, squash, okra, peppers, wheat, oats, sunflower, citrus, peach, pear, apple, grapes and pecans.

• Feeding on developing fruits and seeds can cause discolouration, deformation and reduced crop quality.

Range

• Euschistus servus is a stink bug (Pentatomidae) in the subfamily Pentatominae, tribe Carpocorini.

• It has a broad North American distribution, extending from southern Canada through the United States into Mexico.

• It is occasionally sighted in Zihua, where the warm climate, agricultural areas and diverse vegetation provide suitable habitat.

Habitat

• Found in cultivated fields, orchards, gardens, grasslands, woodland edges and other areas with abundant vegetation.

• Agricultural landscapes can be particularly productive habitat; studies have found adults most frequently in crop fields, where their numbers often increase when suitable food plants are available.

• Around Zihua, look on shrubs, grasses, garden plants and fruiting vegetation, particularly where seeds or developing fruits are present.

• They can move between different host plants during the growing season as food resources change.

Size

• Adult length: approximately 11–15 mm (0.43–0.59 in).

• Body broadly oval and shield-shaped.

• Usually brown, greyish-brown or light brown, often with subtle darker markings.

• The dorsal surface may have a faint darker area near the middle of the scutellum and corresponding markings on the wings.