Diet

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

• It is highly polyphagous, feeding on hundreds of plant species in numerous families.

• Important crops attacked include beans and other legumes, tomatoes, peppers, cotton, soybeans, maize and various vegetables and fruit crops.

Range

• Nezara viridula is a stink bug in the Family Pentatomidae, Subfamily Pentatominae, Tribe Nezarini.

• It is firmly established in Mexico and much of tropical and subtropical North America, including areas along the Pacific coast.

• Around Zihua, it would be expected to be common to very common, particularly in gardens, agricultural areas, disturbed vegetation and other places with abundant broad-leaved plants.

Habitat

• Found in an exceptionally wide range of habitats, including tropical dry forest, tropical forest margins, grasslands, agricultural fields, orchards, gardens, wetlands and urban vegetation.

• It is particularly abundant where legumes and other succulent, seed-producing plants are available.

• Adults often move between wild vegetation and agricultural crops as suitable food plants become available.

• Around Zihua, it can potentially be encountered on vegetable gardens, flowering plants, legumes, shrubs and other cultivated or wild vegetation.

Size

• Adults are generally about 12–16 mm long and approximately 8–9 mm wide.

• The body is broadly shield-shaped, typical of Pentatomidae.

• The most familiar form is bright green, although the species exhibits considerable colour variation.

• The underside is usually greenish, while the antennae have five segments.

• Newly emerged adults are initially pale and soft, becoming fully hardened and coloured after a short period.