red-cross shield bug

6163    This was on the roof inside our holiday trailer on August 28, 2017.  It was about 5/8” in length and 3/8” wide.  When my husband picked it off the ceiling he said it wouldn’t “squish” in between his fingers because the body was hard.  We were camping at Tunnel Mountain Campground, in Banff, Alberta.  Neither of us have seen a bug like this before, so thank you for identifying it for us.   Mary and Garry

This appears to be a red-cross shield bug, Elasmostethus cruciatus (Hemiptera/Heteroptera: Acanthosomatidae); see https://tinyurl.com/ybfqbwfy for an image. They appear to feed primarily on alder trees. These are very close relatives to true stink bugs in the family Pentatomidae, and sometimes may be mistaken for one of those.  Ed Saugstad, retired entomologist; Sinks Grove, WV.