Though our gardens have been awash in brown marmorated stink bugs I found some green ones last week in Schenley Park.

Are these the same species as the annoying, invasive stink bugs from Asia?  No.

Green stink bugs are native to North America.  Just like the brown marmorated stink bug they eat a wide variety of plants so they’re considered an agricultural pest.

In Schenley Park I first noticed them when I saw a green stink bug (at right) perched on yellow jewelweed.  This is the adult.

Out of curiosity I checked the rest of the jewelweed for more insects and found a Japanese beetle and the small, round, ornately marked bug at left.   The left-hand bug is not to scale. It’s actually half the size of the bug on the right.

At first I was sure that the small, ornate bug was a unique and wonderful species … until I looked it up.  The left-hand bug is a green stink bug nymph (young).

Since there’s more than one species of green stink bug in North America, I might not have identified the bugs I saw in Schenley Park correctly, but these photos look like what I saw. They are Acrosternum hilare photographed by Susan Ellis at bugwood.org.

(photos of green stink bugs, nymph and adult by Susan Ellis at bugwood.org)