Friend or Foe - Anybody know?

[PiggyPokkyFool]

I have just found 30 or so of these on my raspberries and runner beans and despite spending the last hour looking I cannot identify them - like a ladybird but black with lots of creamy yellow markings - orangey on the underside.

Looks like a harlequin ladybird to me, they're extremely variable in colouring and pattern. Best way to tell though is to measure, if it's less than 5 mm long it's probably native. Harlequin ladybirds are bigger. As for friend or foe, it may be a friend to you in the sense that it will perform the same duties as a native ladybird, eating pests etc, but it's a foe in terms of out-competing our native ladybirds.

Thank you @RestorationInsanity - we have lots of the lovely little natives happily munching their way through any stray aphids they find and I have had them for three months. These just suddenly appeared - I will let them stay put then - I looked up harlequin before posting but I didn't know they could vary. I didn't want to discover they munch through my pods!

Not harlequin ladybirds, they have brown legs. Check against the third instar Southern Green Shieldbug.

That is it @Rowenberryjelly - and the reason I think you are right is I have a few of the mature ones. I am guessing they are not a friend to my crops?

Well done @Rowenberryjelly. My eyes not good enough to determine leg colour from that photo!

Well I just learned something!
I have seen plenty of the adult version of these guys in my garden/house this year.
(tomato, corn, beans, peas, sunflower plants right outside my window)
Are they poisonous to cats do you know? My cats have tried to eat anything that moves this summer. (they're indoor cats so I don't mean animals other than insects)

Well I just learned something!
Me too - I had no idea that bugs might go through several moults and look so different at different stages. Or that these were called 'instars' - I thought that was a typo!

Shield bugs in general don't seem to have any noticeable impact. I treat them as an interesting and decorative addition to the garden. But if you're eating raspberries straight from the plant, make sure there isn't a shield bug on them. The taste is memorable (It was 60 years ago I made that mistake).

Southern Green Shield Bugs: www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=519 they're a pest!

They can eat sap without being a pest - to my mind a pest has to cause
health-threatening damage to the plant. I've never found shield bugs to cause that much damage.

They've harmed my beans. I always thought they were harmless but this particular species stunt and distort the growth of the beans.