Antestiopsis sp. (genus)

1 Shield bug at Eden, NSW

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Identification history

Unidentified

14 Nov 2019

HarveyPerkins

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User's notes

Suggest these are a species of Antestiopsis, but they don't quite fit any images I've been able to find on the web. Also these ones were duller than the previous one (record 4241461) and lack the black spot on the scutellum - don't know what this means. This record constituted two 'pairs' where a larger individual was closely followed by a slightly smaller one. They were quite camera-shy.

2 comments

PaulWhitington wrote:

16 Nov 2019

Looks like a good match to this ALA record https://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:biodiversity.org.au:afd.taxon:26a1b2a0-d8b3-437c-a926-309ed1b76054#gallery
and is pretty similar to this wikipedia image
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antestiopsis#/media/File:Antestiopsis_thunbergii_2.jpg
I’d suggest going for Antestiopsis sp.

HarveyPerkins wrote:

16 Nov 2019

Yes - the ALA record was the closest I could find, but it still leaves me very uncomfortable ascribing them to the same species. On the other hand, there are only two species listed in ALA under Antestiopsis; and a comment on Wikipaedia relating to A thunbergii (which appears to be an African species) suggests that colour cvariation can be pronounced. I am comfortable with ascribing it to Antestiopsis sp., but would be cautious about assigning to species.

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