rutting season

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comments (11)

Claire Hamilton

Lion

Amazing! Posted 12 years ago

Joost Thissen

Lion

Funny colors :) Posted 12 years ago

WildFlower

Lion

Striped Shield Bugs (Graphosoma lineatum) Posted 12 years ago

Jivko Nakev

Lion

@WildFlower would you check this species. It looks like Graphosoma melanoxanthum to me. Besides the body color the main difference is the legs color - G.lineata has black legs. Posted 10 years ago
1. WildFlower
  
  Lion
  
  I think these are 2 subspecies of Graphosoma lineatum. There are almost no photos of Graphosoma melanoxanthum in the net, but you can see the differences in the first photo in the forum.
  Graphosoma lineatum italicum (O.F. Müller, 1766) - Large black and red bands, legs are black, except for the third tibia.
  Graphosoma lineatum lineatum (Linnaeus, 1758) - Similar to G. italicum, but having always red legs. Color tends to orange.
  Graphosoma melanoxanthum, Horvath, 1903. Dark connexivi with small red points. It is distributed in South Russia, Turkey and Iran
  http://www.naturamediterraneo.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=21655 Posted 10 years ago
2. 1. Jivko Nakev
    
    Lion
    
    I've come across this info as well. But in any case they do not look like G.lineata. Isn't it better to leave them as Unspecified for the time being?
    http://www.corzonneveld.nl/selected/2012/turkey12/Gombe.php
    Posted 10 years ago
  2. 1. WildFlower
      
      Lion
      
      I found other references which should be more reliable. It seems that the one which is described and listed as "Graphosoma melanoxanthum, Horvath, 1903. Dark connexivi with small red points." above is G. rubrolineatum and G. melanoxanthum is yellow with black markings, which is also described in the genus key. Nevertheless, Algeria is not whithin the distribution range of G. melanoxanthum, but in that of Graphosoma lineatum lineatum, which also has orange legs.
      http://www.sssn.it/PDF/PDF%20Nat.%20Sic.%203-4%202008/Carapezza-Jindra.pdf
      http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/ndsu/rider/Pentatomoidea/Genus_Podopinae/Graphosoma.htm
      http://www.aemnp.eu/pdf/48_1/48_1_1.pdf Posted 10 years ago, modified 10 years ago
    2. 1. Jivko Nakev
        
        Lion
        
        The situation with these species is quite complicated and still discussable. Some sources show that G.lineata is black footed, other consider G.italicum and G.lineata as separate species, the first one being black-footed, while the second one being with orange legs. The information is quite controversial. In other reference it is shown that G.lineata has seasonal color variations (Sweden), and also that there are reports from Southern Europe for specimen with little or no red coloration.
        http://www.zoologi.su.se/research/tullberg/papers/Tullberg%20et%20al.%202008.pdf
        http://aesgsf.free.fr/V5/bugs-in-picardy-hemiptera-graphosoma-italicum-bug-harlequin.html
        For the time being G.melanoxanthum is reported mainly from Israel.
        In such a case whatever we do, it could be wrong after some time!!!
        In any case this study and discussion was quite interesting and useful for me.
        Posted 10 years ago

Pudding4brains

Lion

This should be the original or "true" lineatum, as discussions go. The species was originally described by Linnaeus from specimen sent to him from North-Africa. Later G.italicum was described from Italy. David Rider has synonymized the two for the Catalogue of the Heteroptera of the Palaearctic Region (Aukema & Rieger, eds) but many Heteropterists from southern Europe disagree. In their view the continental European species (== italicum) and the North-African species (== lineatum) are two separate species. Confusingly a very good French insect-gallery lists them as such, whereas Fauna Europae and many, many other very serious European sites/references will name the continental European species lineatum, as the synonymy requires.

More research is needed to clear things up. But one thing is clear: Even if synonymy is reverted and continental European specimen would be renamed to italicum, this image will still show Graphosoma lineatum :o) Posted 8 years ago, modified 8 years ago

Pudding4brains

Lion

Today Berend Aukema posted a message on the forum at waarneming.nl that effective immediately the two should be considered seperate and valid species:
https://forum.waarneming.nl/smf/index.php?topic=424068.0
He is also the coordinator for Fauna Europaea and one of the authors of the Palearctic Catalog of Heteroptera, so I consider his oppinion to be autorative. In the past he has been reluctant to follow the lead taken in this matter by some French heteropterists, but apparently he now considers the case to be sufficiently proven.
In due time I will thus apply this name change on the various photos, species profiles and tags here on JD. It is not yet applied to Fauna Europaea, but it will eventually be updated there too. Posted 7 years ago, modified 7 years ago
1. Ferdy Christant
  
  Lion
  
  Thanks for being so on top of this, Arp! Posted 7 years ago

The Graphosoma lineatum

''Graphosoma lineatum'' is a species of shield bug in the family Pentatomidae. It has long been the name used for the European "Minstrel Bug", but eventually the name Graphosoma italicum has been re-instated out of synonymy for the European species and the older name Graphosoma lineatum is now reserved for the paler North African animals that are (once again) considered to be a separate species.

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Similar species: True Bugs

Species identified by WildFlower