Common Green Shield Bug - Palomena prasina

-
I came across another shield bug today when I found this common green shield bug sitting on the the leaves of a phlox plant in the garden this afternoon. This is a large shield bug that is common throughout Britain, but less so in Scotland.

There is one generation a year, with eggs laid in June and the larvae going through a series of instars, all slightly different in appearance. The barrel-shaped eggs are laid on the undersides of leaves. Both nymphs and adults feed on plant sap. The photograph below is of a 5th instar that I found in the garden in mid August, very near to the place I found the adult today. This developmental process from egg to adult through the series on instars is known as hemimetabolous development (1). Each of the instars resemble the adults but are wingless.

Each instar stage has different colouration, and the final adult stage is reached in September. The adults then hibernate over winter and reemerge to breed in the late spring. The anatomy of the shield bug mean that mating has to take place back to back as stiff body prevent mating in any other way.

1: Martin, J. Hemiptera...It's a Bug's Life. http://www.nhm.ac.uk/resources-rx/files/26feat_its_a_bugs_life-3013.pdf

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Parasitic wasp - Ichneumon stramentor

-
Image
On Friday night as I was clearing the kitchen getting ready to sit down and watch a film with the family I came across this fantastic ichneumon wasp. It seemed to be drinking water from the kitchen top and wasn't in any hurry to move off, nor was it disturbed at all by the camera and me fussing about around it. After some detective work on the net, with my books and help from the fantastic experts on iSpot I'm able to confirm it as Ichneumon stramentor. It's about 1.5cm long if I don't include the antennae, and 2cm including the length of the antennae. It has a l ong tapered abdomen, the first half of which is yellow and the rear half black, with yellow spot at the tip (both on the top and beneath. Legs have black femora; tibiae are half yellow blending into brown that exceeds to the tarsi. Black thorax (with yellow spot) and black head. This specimen is a  female as the males have all black antennae. It's flight time is from April through to July.
Read more

Cinnamon Sedge - Limnephilus lunatus.

-
Image
The light trap came up with a number of new discoveries the other weekend. One of which stumped me for a while. I was convinced it was a micro moth, but the legs were very hairy and didn't quite fit. Neither did the wings. Well thanks to iSpot I was put straight. It's not a moth, but a Caddisfly. I'm not very good at this! But that said this chap, Limnephilus lunatus is quite attractive, also known as the Cinnamon Sedge. The 'lumatus' comes from the crescent shape on the edge of the wings. It is a well known species, especially among anglers. The larva doesn't use sand or other hard materials for building its case, it uses plant materials only. Most of the information I could find on L lunatus came from angling websites. Caddis flies belong to the Trichoptera, and have been known to fishermen since the advent of fly-fishing and to the entomological for a longer time. Mouffet the author of the first English book on entomology (the 'Theatrum Insectorum') w
Read more

Beautiful plume moth - Amblyptilia acanthadactyla

-
Image
I was called into the daughter's bedroom last night to rescue a Beautiful plume moth. Though I'm still not sure who I was rescuing from whom! I've always been fascinated by these moths, which when at rest furl up their wings like sails on a ship. It was a fast flying and unpredicatable beast, and difficult to photograph clearly. The Beautiful plume moth,  Amblyptilia acanthadactyla , is one of the commonest plume moths, usually recognisable by the warm rusty brown patches in the dark brown wing tip . I have to admit to have a little difficulty in identifying this for certain. A. acanthadactyla looks very similar to A. punctidactyla, the Brindled plume moth. However, with the help of the expert on iSpot it has been  confirmed  as  A. acanthadactyla. It has two generations each year in July and later in September-April (1). The second generation over winters as an adult. Larval food plants have been listed as hedge woundwort, restharrows, mints, gooseberries, crane&#
Read more