Megacopta cribraria
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
Megacopta cribraria, also called the bean plataspid, kudzu bug, globular stink bug and lablab bug, is a shield bug native to India and China, where it is an agricultural pest of lablab beans and other legumes. The bug, while harmless to houseplants and people, often enters houses. It is attracted to white surfaces such as the walls of houses or white vehicles, because of the high reflectance of the white surfaces as it relates to the bugs' simple eyes. As a defense mechanism, they emit a foul-smelling pheromone that also acts as a congregation pheromone. Aside from smelling foul, the liquid also creates a burning sensation and sometimes leaves a red welt on bare skin. It is similar to other Plataspidae in having a somewhat unusual symbiotic relationship with its gut bacteria. Before laying eggs, females deposit particles containing the symbiont, which are then eaten by newly hatched nymphs under natural conditions. Nymphs experimentally deprived of access to the symbiont exhibited slower growth, smaller body sizes and higher mortality.
Megacopta punctatissima, the Japanese common stinkbug, is a name applied to Japanese populations of M. cribraria. It has a gut bacteria that allows it to consume crops such as soybean plants. The two used to be treated as distinct species, but phylogenetic work has found the two to be not distinct. What is called M. cribraria in the United States likely descends from a population of "M. punctatissima" from Kyushu, Japan. The Japanese (JA) population is closest to the East Asian continental (EAC) population. The two diverged 0.71 Mya (million years ago), when the East China Sea land bridge became submerged. The EAC population branched off from the Southeast Asian (SEA) population 1.34 Mya.
The bean plataspid gives off an offensive odor when touched, squashed, or poked. Hosted by wisteria, green beans, and other legumes, the insect sucks juice from the stems of soybean plants and reduces crop yield. However, when the insect infests kudzu, another invasive species, it appreciably reduces the growth of that plant. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Great Smoky Mountains National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Kudzu Bug sighting in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a given day, based on 96 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 47th most-seen of the 822 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July and October
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Kudzu Bug in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April and December–February, the lowest months.
Between 3 and 6 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Kudzu Bug sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Great Smoky Mountains National Park, in our data
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Kudzu Bug sightings: about 20% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same order: Hemiptera
The closest relatives of the Kudzu Bug that you can see in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (order Hemiptera, True Bugs, Hoppers, Aphids, and allies) are Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (about 20%), Acanthocephala terminalis (about 20%) and Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Kudzu Bug is recorded against all the insects logged in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (96 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
