With the name based on the Asian genus Scutellera, they are also known as shield-backed bugs due to the enlargement of the thoracic scutellum into a continuous shield over the abdomen and wings.
[3] They can easily be distinguished from stink bugs (Pentatomidae) because the shield-like enlarged last section of their thorax (known as the scutellum, Latin for "little shield") completely covers the abdomen and the wings.
[6] Though some species are quite drab,[10] the most conspicuous jewel bugs are often brilliantly colored, exhibiting a wide range of iridescent metallic hues that change with the view angle.
Some species like Chrysocoris stockerus and Scutellera nobilis display colors from multiple thin layers of pigmented chitin.
Instead of pigments, the colors are caused by the interference, diffraction, or scattering of light by numerous tiny structures.
These structures affect light passing through them, producing their oily-looking blue sheen (known as the Tyndall effect or Mie scattering).
[11] In other species like the African shield bug (Calidea panaethiopica), the dorsal cuticle is dotted with tiny regularly spaced hemispherical cavities.
When light hits the pitted surface, it gives off multiple reflections resulting in the distinctive two tone yellow-blue iridescence.
An example is the yellow-spotted black Steganocerus multipunctatus which exhibits Müllerian mimicry with the tortoise beetle Chiridopsis suffriani.
[16][17] Like all hemipterans, jewel bugs undergo incomplete metamorphosis (hemimetaboly) and do not possess larval and pupal stages.
[13][21] Chemical secretions from dorsal abdominal or sternal exocrine glands are used to attract mates by certain species of jewel bugs.
[22] In certain genera (like Tectocoris, Psacasta, Odontoscelis, and Irochrotus), males possess special unicellular glands in the abdomen known as the androconia (singular: androconium).
[17] Male jewel bugs of the genus Hotea possess an unusually large, spiky, and heavily sclerotized genitalia.
[27] In phylogenetic studies in 2008 by Grazia et al., Scutelleridae was shown to be consistently monophyletic, basal to Acanthosomatidae, and distal to Plataspididae and Parastrachiidae.
[29] Urostylididae Saileriolidae Acanthosomatidae Tessaratomidae Dinidoridae Cydnidae Thaumastellidae Parastrachiinae Thyreocoridae Lestoniidae Phloeidae Scutelleridae Plataspididae Pentatomidae Canopidae Megarididae The family is composed of about 81 genera and around 450 species worldwide.
Selected genera: Though most jewel bugs do little harm to crop plants,[34] a few members of Scutelleridae are considered major agricultural pests.
Eurygaster integriceps, in particular, is a very destructive pest of cereal crops in North Africa, the Balkans, and western and central Asia.
A parasitoid fly which preys on hemipterans, Trichopoda pennipes was introduced to Hawaii to control the invasive species Nezara viridula, the southern green stink bug.