Tag Archives: British shieldbugs

Hirsute

26 Wednesday Aug 2026

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Hirsute: adjective; covered with hair (from the Latin hirsūtus, meaning shaggy) (Collins Concise Dictionary).

Hirsute seems the perfect word to describe this little fellow, and its siblings. These are 1st instar nymphs (i.e. the first stage since hatching) of the Hairy shieldbug (Dolycoris baccarum), also known as the Sloe shieldbug, though I think you’ll agree that Hairy is the name that suits it best.

They become less hairy as they age, but even the adult bug is a little hairy. When I first spotted them, these tiny shieldbugs were staying very close to the eggs they had hatched from but, just a few days later, when I revisited, I found the eggs again but the bugs had all dispersed.

Bugs like buses

12 Wednesday Aug 2026

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It seems that bugs are a bit like buses – you look for ages and only find two, then they all appear at once.

On Monday I caught the train to north Cardiff on a mission to find something special (more on that tomorrow) but, before looking for that creature, detoured through Heath Park. The woodland there is usually quite damp, even in the middle of summer, but neither a drop of water nor a squelch of mud remained.

The only water I could find was in Nant-y-Wedal, a narrow stinking stream that runs across one of the fields (I’m not sure what causes the smell, but there are permanent hazard notices warning of bacteria).

If you can ignore the noxious smell, the wildflowers and trees growing along the stream are always worth a look I’ve found, and so it was on Monday. Some leaf-turning and fossicking amongst the Alders was especially rewarding.

Not only did I find two Red-legged shieldbugs and a Hawthorn shieldbug, but there were several Parent bugs, a couple sitting on their own, plus three guarding their eggs, and what I think are tiny first instars, just in the process of hatching (not sure where their parent had gone). This is obviously the perfect time to see them as I also saw more on the Alders around Roath Park Lake, my subsequent destination.

Turtle bug

23 Monday Mar 2026

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I found this little bug dead when I was picking up small rotting logs to see what might be lurking beneath, in a meander around Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park three weeks ago. I thought it was a Tortoise bug (Eurygaster testudinaria) and recorded it as such but my identification has since been corrected.

Turns out I had confused Turtle with Tortoise! This is, in fact, a species of shieldbug, a Turtle bug (Podops inuncta). Though I don’t think it’s clear in my photos, this species has ‘two small projections on the pronotum at each side of the head’ (thank you, Nature Spot).

The habitat in which I found it also fits with what the Nature Spot website says: ‘it is strongly ground-dwelling and rarely found unless searched for’; that explains why I’ve never seen one before, and encourages me to keep lifting up those small rotting logs.

Three shieldbug species

06 Friday Mar 2026

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The number and variety of invertebrates that are now out and about is gradually increasing, though seeing them depends on reasonably warm, sunny days, which are still very much intermittent here in south Wales. When the sun does shine though, shieldbugs can be seen basking on the trees of shrubs and wildflowers, and I’ve now managed to spot these three different species.

Hairy shieldbug (Dolycoris baccarum)

Hawthorn shieldbug (Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale)

And Green shieldbug (sometimes called Common green shieldbug, Palomena prasina). Both of the above are Green shieldbugs but this species changes to a bronze colour before winter hibernation and takes a little time to change back to its usual green hue come the spring.

Three shieldbug nymphs

13 Wednesday Aug 2025

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I’ve found some nice nymphs of our various shieldbug species during recent walks so thought I’d share a few of them. The nymphs almost always look quite different to the adults of the same species; if you’re unsure which shieldbug or which stage (instar) of nymph you’ve found, the British Bugs website has a page full of excellent drawings showing the various instars of all the British shieldbug species.

As this was only my fourth ever sighting of this species, I was particularly pleased to spot this Bronze shieldbug nymph (Troilus luridus), though it would have been difficult to miss as its metallic colours sparkled in the sunshine.

To illustrate how much these bugs change as they grow, I’ve included two photos of Hawthorn shieldbug (Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale), the top image shows early instar nymphs and below that is a mid instar nymph.

It was just a couple of months ago that I saw my first Juniper shieldbug (Cyphostethus tristriatus) and I wrote then (Juniper shieldbug, 3 June) that I was intending to return to the site to look for more, adults and nymphs. I did, and I have; this is one of two nymphs I found recently, a bug that’s just a stunning as the adult, in my humble opinion.

Parent bug mother and eggs

23 Wednesday Jul 2025

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You might remember a very colourful and joyful blog from July last year (Parent bug mother and babies) when I shared a sighting of a Parent bug (Elasmucha grisea) female with her huge brood of young buglets (or, more correctly, nymphs, but I quite like buglet!). Well, just as I was heading home from a recent wander around Cardiff’s Grangemoor Park, I was fossicking through the leaves of an Italian alder tree and spotted this scene.

Though her colouring is quite pale, this is also a Parent bug mother, only this time she’s huddling over and protecting her eggs. Whether or not she was still in the process of laying the eggs or whether these eggs were a few days old I don’t know, and I didn’t want to disturb her by looking more closely. I grabbed a couple of quick photos and left her to her mothering duties.

Juniper shieldbug

03 Tuesday Jun 2025

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This is a bug I never thought I’d see locally as I don’t know any locations where Juniper trees grow. Fortunately for me, and as stated on the British Bugs website, the Juniper shieldbug (Cyphostethus tristriatus) has started living on Lawson’s cypress (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana) as well as its traditional host tree, the Juniper (Juniperus communis) for which it is named. And Lawson’s cypress is a popular planting in gardens and parks, which is where this tree was growing, alongside a path that runs around a local recreation ground.

British Bugs explains that adult Juniper shieldbugs, with the beautiful reddish-pink markings on their backs, can be seen all year round, though they tend not to be too active during the coldest winter months, like most of us. The nymphs that hatch from mid to late Spring feed on Juniper and Cypress berries and, like all shieldbugs, they go through a series of instars before reaching adulthood. The website has excellent, illustrated downloadable charts of the various stages of most shieldbug species for easy identification if you happen to spot a nymph and, now that I know where this Juniper shieldbug lives, I’ll have to go back and look for more, adults and nymphs.

Common and green

30 Thursday Jan 2025

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I called this blog common and green as that is the name of this lovely creature, the Common green shieldbug (Palomena prasina), but this particular shieldbug’s colour looked to be half way between its summer green colour and the bronze it assumes during the winter months.

It was basking on an ivy leaf, out of the chill wind, in today’s relatively warm winter sunshine, and, in my fanciful imagination, I thought it looked to be smiling contentedly. I was certainly smiling to see this, my first shieldbug of 2025.

Parent bug mother and babies

12 Friday Jul 2024

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Leaf-bothering is quickly becoming one of my favourite things, especially when the weather isn’t good for bird-watching or spotting beautiful insects like butterflies and dragonflies. And it is most special when I turn over a leaf to see scenes like this, of a Parent bug (Elasmucha grisea) and her many babies (according to the British Bugs website, the male bug dies soon after mating while the female lives on to brood her eggs and young offspring). And these weren’t all of the Parent bug’s nymphs, as a neighbouring leaf held even more – I stopped counting at 80! At least she doesn’t have to feed them all.

240712 parent bug and babies

A colony of Woundwort shieldbugs

11 Tuesday Jun 2024

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I was actually checking the Hedge woundwort plants growing alongside our local coastal path for leaf-mining moths (of which there were none) when I spotted first one Woundwort shieldbug, then another, and another, and then two mating.

240611 woundwort shieldbugs (3)

In fact, I eventually counted eight, which is more than I’ve ever seen in one spot before. Hopefully, this means their numbers are increasing generally as they are very handsome little bugs.

240611 woundwort shieldbugs (2)

As well as feeding on Hedge woundwort (Stachys sylvatica), the Woundwort shieldbug (Eysarcoris venustissimus) is also partial to the Lamiaceae species of plants, especially White dead-nettle (Lamium album).

240611 woundwort shieldbugs (1)