Harlequin Bug

Murgantia histrionica

Harlequin Bug (Murgantia histrionica)
Image: Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA, wikipedia

The harlequin cabbage bug, also known as calico bug, fire bug or harlequin bug, is a black stinkbug of the family Pentatomidae, brilliantly marked with red, orange, yellow and white markings. It is a major pest of cabbage and related crops in the Brassicaceae, as well as the ornamental flower cleome throughout tropical and North America, especially the warmer parts of the United States. Nymphs are active during the summer and in the tropics the bug can achieve three to six generations a year. In the northern range there is only one generation annually and the insects overwinter as adults in crop residues or field edges. Organic control involves hand-picking the insects off the plants and being especially careful to remove and destroy all the eggs, which are black-and-white striped, laid in clutches of twelve. Source

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In the last 8 weeks this insect was recorded 11 times across 3 areas (each area is a 5 degree square).

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Figures are effort corrected and come from automatic sound identification, which makes mistakes. How this is measured and how it compares with human observers.