Zicrona caerulea
species of insect
Zicrona caerulea, the blue shieldbug, is a species of bug of the family Pentatomidae.
Description
Zicrona caerulea can reach an adult size of about 5–8 millimetres (0.20–0.31 in). The body is uniformly metallic blue-green (hence the Latin name caerulea, meaning blue). In the immatures the abdomen is red with black markings.
These bugs are useful predators of leaf beetles in the genus Altica, of larvae of various beetles and caterpillars of moths, but it also feeds on plants. Eggs are laid in the spring. New adults of this univoltine species can be found from July onwards. This bug overwinters as an adult.
Distribution and habitat
This species is present in Eurasia and in North America. Its natural habitat consists of low vegetation in moors, heaths, damp grassland and forest edges.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 17, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q19800616. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Zicrona caerulea” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.