Rough stink bug

Conservation Status

IUCN Red List

not listed

NatureServe

NNR - Unranked

Minnesota

not listed

Description

Brochymena arborea is a medium-sized rough stink bug. It occurs in the United States east of the Great Plains, southern Quebec and Ontario Canada, Mexico, and Central America.

Adults are active from May to September. They are found on a wide variety of trees and shrubs.

Adults are ⅜″ to 11⁄16″ (10 to 18 mm) in length. The body is broadly oval, somewhat shield-shaped in outline, slightly flattened, and pale with extensive dark markings. The coloration is variable: gray with black markings; light brown with dark brown and black markings; or brownish yellow with dark brown markings. It has many large, irregularly scattered, black pits, and is densely covered with numerous small, dark-bordered pits (punctate). The overall effect is a camouflaged, bark-like appearance

The head is small and narrow, much narrower than the thorax. It is tucked into a concave groove in the margin of the pronotum. There is no visible “neck” when viewed from above. The sides of the head are concave. There are two large, bulging, compound eyes and two small simple eyes (ocelli). There is no crosswise (transverse) groove between the compound eyes. The front of the head is divided into a central lobe (tylus) and two lateral lobes (juga). The juga are much longer than the tylus but do not converge in front of them. Each jugum has a single prominent tooth on the side (subapical tooth) between the compound eye and the tip, nearer to the tip. The subapical tooth has straight sides and forms a right angle at the tip. The mouth parts are optimized for piercing and sucking, and take the form of a slender, straight, 4-segmented beak (rostrum). The rostrum is longer than the head and fits into a groove on the underside (sternum) when not in use. The antennae have five segments. Segments 3, 4, and 5 are about equal in length and about one third longer than segment 2. They are brownish-black, slender, and long, much longer than the head but not as long as the body.

The thorax is twice as wide as long. The exoskeletal plate covering the thorax (pronotum) is coarsely and irregularly pitted. The front side margins have four or five large, triangular teeth and one or two smaller teeth. The shoulder (humeral) areas, above the wing bases, are distinctly swollen. The front corners (humeral angles) jut outward in a projection that is nearly square (subquadrate).

There are two pairs of wings, and they are held flat over the body when at rest. Between the wing bases there is a large plate (scutellum). The basal third or quarter of the scutellum is broadly triangular and distinctly elevated above the remainder. The rear portion is U-shaped and extends nearly to the tip of the abdomen.

The forewings (hemelytra) are as long as the abdomen but do not completely cover the sides of the abdomen. The abdomen appears to abruptly widen opposite the middle of the scutellum, exposing the flattened sides of each abdominal segment (connexivum) beyond this point. The connexiva are conspicuously striped with black and pale. The pale stripes are usually partly reddish, orangish, or whitish. The hemelytra have a thickened, leathery section at the base and a thin membranous section at the tip with a clear dividing line between the two. The membrane is pale with dark and black markings between the veins.

The legs are ringed with alternating black and pale bands. The fourth segment (tibia) of the hind legs has hairs but lacks long spines. The last part of each leg (tarsus), corresponding to the foot, has three segments.

Size

Total length: ⅜″ to 11⁄16″ (10 to 18 mm)

Similar Species

Four-humped stink bug (Brochymena quadripustulata): The front side margins of the pronotum have short, blunt teeth. The humeral angles are broadly triangular. The base of the scutellum is flat or only slightly elevated.

Habitat

Ecology

Season

One generation per year: May to September (CCESR)

Behavior

Life Cycle

Adults overwinter in leaf and plant litter. In the spring, the female lays clusters of barrel-shaped eggs in tight rows on the underside of leaves.

Nymph Food

Adult Food

A wide variety of trees and shrubs

Distribution

Sources

27, 30, 82, 83.

Biodiversity occurrence data published by: Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas (accessed through the Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas Portal, bellatlas.umn.edu. Accessed 10/4/2026).

Brochymena arborea (Say, 1825) in Bánki, O., Roskov, Y., Döring, M., Ower, G., Hernández Robles, D. R., Plata Corredor, C. A., Stjernegaard Jeppesen, T., Örn, A., Pape, T., Hobern, D., Garnett, S., Little, H., DeWalt, R. E., Miller, J., Orrell, T., Aalbu, R., Abbott, J., Abreu, C., Acero P, A., et al. (2026). Catalogue of Life (2026-08-26 XR). Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgyy9

Ryder, D. A. (2012). The Heteroptera (Hemiptera) of North Dakota I: Pentatomomorpha: Pentatomoidea. The Great Lakes Entomologist, 45(3–4), 312–380.