Black-shouldered Shieldbug

Carpocoris pudicus · Order: Hemiptera · Family: Pentatomidae

Damages trees, gardens or crops. It can damage crops such as Apiaceae, Asteraceae and Poaceae plants.

Source: Wikipedia

Black-shouldered Shieldbug
Photo: Emanuele Santarelli, CC BY-SA

Carpocoris pudicus is about 11 mm long and lives in sunny, hot, dry places across central and southern Europe. It feeds on a variety of plants in the carrot, daisy and grass families, which can make it a garden and field pest.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

Each male paramere has a single tooth on its head, and the pronotum’s humeral angles are rounded with a black spot.

Source: Wikipedia

Size

Adults reach about 11 mm (0.43 in) in body length.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it lives

They prefer sunny, hot and dry habitats.

Source: Wikipedia

What it eats

They are polyphagous, mainly feeding on plants from the Apiaceae, Asteraceae and Poaceae families.

Source: Wikipedia

Lookalikes

It looks similar to Carpocoris mediterraneus but can be told apart by its blunt, non-pointed pronotum angles and a pronotum and abdomen of equal width.

Source: Wikipedia

More photos

Black-shouldered Shieldbug photo 3
Photo: Kostas Zontanos, CC BY
Black-shouldered Shieldbug photo 4
Photo: Kostas Zontanos, CC BY

Questions people ask

What plants does Carpocoris pudicus feed on?

It mainly eats members of the carrot, daisy and grass families (Apiaceae, Asteraceae, Poaceae).

Source: Wikipedia

Is Carpocoris pudicus a pest for gardens or crops?

Yes, because it feeds on many garden and field plants, it can become a crop-pest.

Source: Wikipedia

Where is Carpocoris pudicus found in Europe?

It occurs widely across central and southern Europe, from France and Germany to Greece and the Balkans.

Source: Wikipedia

Same family (Pentatomidae)

Brown Marmorated Stink BugBrown Marmorated Stink BugHalyomorpha halysDamages trees, gardens or cropsGreen Stink BugGreen Stink BugChinavia hilarisDamages trees, gardens or cropsHarlequin BugHarlequin BugMurgantia histrionicaDamages trees, gardens or cropsBrown Stink BugBrown Stink BugEuschistus servusDamages trees, gardens or cropsGreen Shield BugGreen Shield BugPalomena prasinaEuropean Striped Shield BugEuropean Striped Shield BugGraphosoma italicum

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpocoris_pudicus

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

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