Diet

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

• Recorded host plants in Mexico include sapodilla (Manilkara zapota), white sapote (Casimiroa edulis), black sapote (Diospyros digyna), guava (Psidium guajava) and soursop (Annona muricata). Research has also documented C. distinctus on Annona reticulata.

• Feeding on developing plant tissues can result in localized spotting or damage, particularly on fruit.

Range

• Chlorocoris distinctus is a stink bug (Pentatomidae) in the subfamily Pentatominae, tribe Pentatomini, genus Chlorocoris. Its current taxonomic status is recognised as valid.

• It occurs in Mexico, Central America and parts of South America, with records extending into the southern United States.

• It is occasionally sighted in Zihua, where warm conditions and abundant tropical vegetation provide suitable habitat.

Habitat

• Associated with tropical forest, tropical dry forest, woodland, scrub, forest edges, gardens and agricultural areas.

• Adults and nymphs occur primarily on trees and shrubs, particularly those producing young foliage, flowers or fruit.

• Around Zihua, check guava, sapote, annona and other fruiting trees, as well as surrounding vegetation.

• A study in Mexico found C. distinctus on the leaves of Annona, demonstrating its association with cultivated and fruit-producing plants.

Size

• Adult length: approximately 12–18 mm (0.5–0.7 in).

• Body broadly shield-shaped, as expected in Pentatomidae.

• Adults are generally green, with contrasting darker markings and prominent angular projections along the pronotum.

• The sides of the pronotum project obliquely forward and terminate in dark spines, while the head is relatively pointed. These are useful field characteristics.