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Spilostethus pandurus

Spilostethus pandurus
Lygaeidae - Spilostethus pandurus .JPG
Spilostethus pandurus, upperside
Lygaeidae - Spilostethus pandurus.JPG
Sidem view
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Suborder: Heteroptera
Infraorder: Pentatomomorpha
Superfamily: Lygaeoidea
Family: Lygaeidae
Subfamily: Lygaeinae
Genus: Spilostethus
Species: S. pandurus
Binomial name
Spilostethus pandurus
(Scopoli, 1763)
Synonyms
  • Cimex pandurus Scopoli, 1763

Spilostethus pandurus is a species of "seed bugs" belonging to the family Lygaeidae, subfamily Lygaeinae.

Subspecies include:

This species can be found in the Euro-mediterranean-Turaniaan Region, with a more southern distribution than Spilostethus saxatilis.

It is present in Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, in the Afrotropical realm. and in the southern Asia to India and China.

Spilostethus pandurus can reach a length of 13–15 millimetres (0.51–0.59 in). Body shows a red-black coloration with a white spot in the center of the membrane. Two wavy, broad, black, longitudinal stripes run from the front to the rear edge of the pronotum. Scutellum is black, sometimes with a small red spot at the end. The nymphs are bright red.

These bugs have two dorsolateral prothoracic glands capable of secreting substances repugnant to predators.

These polyphagous bugs feed on flowers and seeds of many plants. They preferentially fed on the plants of the family Asclepiadaceae. In Europe, they are present on other various toxic plants such as jimsonweed (Datura stramonium) and oleander (Nerium oleander).


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