This weeks “Insect of the Week”, Oncozygia clavicornis Stål, is a stink bug (Pentatomidae) in the subfamily Podopinae commonly referred to as turtle bugs. It is small insect group with only 6 genera and 13 species in North America. I discovered our one and only specimen of this species while I was examining our holdings of turtle bugs and discovered that it had been misidentified years ago. Our one specimen was collected on 29 May 1940 in Raleigh. This specimen represents our first record of this species for the state.

This species was described by Stål in 1872 from material collected in Texas.

This turtle bug can be distinguished from other species in North Carolina by the subquadrate denticulate lobe of each anterolateral margin of the pronotum. In addition on the head the juga is markedly longer than the tylus. While the juga can be longer than the tylus in other species of turtle bugs, no other species in our area has the combination of subquadrate lobe on the anterolateral margin of the pronotum and the long juga.

There is no information published on this insect’s life history. Other members of this subfamily of Pentatomidae seem to occur generally on vegetation in low marshy places or near bodies of water. Other species have been recorded from cat-tails, Carex, Juncus and Spartina. During my master’s research I collected Amaurochrous brevitylusBarber & Sailer using a D-Vac from tall fescue pasture in mid Missouri.

Previously known from Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. North Carolina can now be added to the known distribution for this species.

• Barber, H.G. & R.I. Sailer. 1953. A revision of the turtle bugs of North Amercia (Hemiptera: Pentatomidae). Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 43:150-162.
• Blatchley, W.S. 1924. Heteroptera or True Bugs of Eastern North America, with Especial Reference to the Faunas of Indiana and Florida. Nature Publishing Company, Indianapolis, 1116 pages.
• McPherson, J.E. 1982. The Pentatomoidea (Hemiptera) of Northeastern North America with Emphasis on the Fauna of Illinois. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale. ix + 241 pages.