Scutelleridae

Scutelleridae is a family of true bugs. They are commonly known as jewel (stink) bugs or metallic shield bugs due to their often unique coloration. With the name based on the Asian genus Scutellera, they are also known as shield-backed bugs due to the enlargement of the thoracic scutellum into a continuous shield over the abdomen and wings. This latter characteristic distinguishes them from most other families within Heteroptera, and may lead to misidentification as a beetle rather than a bug. These insects use their piercing-sucking mouthparts to feed on plant juices from a variety of different species, including some commercial crops. Closely related to stink bugs, they may also produce an offensive odour when disturbed. There are around 450 species worldwide.

Scutelleridae

Benjamint444 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
metallic shield bugPBDB
Sits inside
PentatomoideaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 55 million years on record.

The record covers at least 59.24 Mya to 3.6 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 61.66 Mya to 2.58 Mya.

Paleocene — about 1 of 22 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 5 of 22 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 7 of 22 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 8 of 22 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 1 of 22 occurrencesPleistocene — about 0 of 22 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences61–59 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences55–53 Mya — about 1 occurrence53–51 Mya — about 1 occurrence51–49 Mya — about 1 occurrence49–46 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences34–32 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences32–30 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences30–28 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences28–26 Mya — about 2 occurrences26–24 Mya — about 2 occurrences24–22 Mya — about 1 occurrence22–20 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences14–12 Mya — about 7 occurrences12–9.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.5–3.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.4–1.4 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences59.24 Mya3.6 Mya63 Mya1 Mya

22 occurrences of Scutelleridae on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

22 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

8 formations

Upper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°EMoler — 56.84°N, 9.00°EMenat — 46.10°N, 2.90°ESalt — 47.69°N, 7.53°EHydrobienkalk — 50.04°N, 8.24°EKiscell Clay — 47.54°N, 19.02°EShiake — 31.71°N, 130.41°E

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The named rock units Scutelleridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Scutelleridae and its relatives

Miocene

Where Scutelleridae and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.

Found in the same rock

1,105 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 16 sites for Scutelleridae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

12 references

Each of the 22 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Scutelleridae

Credit
Benjamint444
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itPentatomoidea through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Leach 1815)