Stink bugs mating on the road — Kuhara Road, Tawau

A mating pair at the bus stop opposite Pasar Semarak, on the boundary of the Tawau River Triangle, 27 July 2013, 07:09

Two small brown, finely dotted shield bugs joined end to end on grey road tar, each with a cream spot at the front corners of its scutellum, seen from above. — 07:09:00, from above. Cropped and reduced; nothing else changed.

Low side view of the same pair end to end, showing the cream-and-dark banded abdominal edges, pale undersides with black dots and spotted legs. — 07:10:07, low side view of the same pair. Cropped and reduced.

The record

Date	Saturday 27 July 2013
Time	07:09–07:10, early morning (two cameras whose clocks agree)
Place	Road surface beside the bus stop on Kuhara Road (Jalan Kuhara), opposite Pasar Semarak, Km 7, Tawau, Sabah
Triangle	On the boundary: Kuhara Road is one side of the Tawau River Triangle, so the pair were neither inside nor outside it
Habitat	Tarmac; beside the road, old oil palm overgrown with bushes. Probably flew out of the bushes and landed on the road
Number	One pair, adults, mating
Substrate	Not on a plant
Size	Not measured
Cameras	Panasonic DMC-F2 (07:09:00); Panasonic DMC-LX5 (07:10:07); no flash
Observer	Wong Fook Yee, waiting for the company van to work
iNaturalist	observation 405817725

Identification

Order Hemiptera · Family Pentatomidae (stink bugs) — agreed on iNaturalist.
Suggested: Eysarcoris (tribe Eysarcorini) — not yet confirmed.

Shield-shaped, with a large scutellum: Pentatomidae.
Body brown, densely punctured with dark dots on a paler ground.
Pronotum with pointed side corners, darker towards the edges.
A raised, rounded cream-white spot at each basal corner of the scutellum: the character that points to Eysarcoris.
Connexivum banded cream and dark; underside pale with black dots; legs pale, finely spotted; eyes red-brown.
Paired end to end, facing opposite ways: the usual mating position in stink bugs.

Several similar Eysarcoris species occur in South-east Asia. Two photographs without a size cannot separate them, so the record stays at family until identifiers take it further.

Remarks

The only morning record from the Triangle so far, and the only one made on its boundary: the other nine on the Triangle page were all made in the afternoon or early evening. This one exists because the bus stop was where I waited for my transport to work.

Related: Tawau River Triangle · Man-faced stink bugs mating, Pu Zhao Temple, 2014 · True bugs · Two pairs of wings · Insects of Borneo
Photographs © Wong Fook Yee. Locality, date, time and behaviour are the photographer's own; identification to family by the iNaturalist community. Record page written 5 October 2026.