Tag Archives: Common Green Shieldbug

Common and green

30 Thursday Jan 2025

Posted by in insects, winter

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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.

Shieldbug eggs and hatchlings

26 Friday Jul 2024

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Recent leaf-bothering has turned up several clutches of insect eggs, usually laid on the undersides of leaves. Most I can’t identify but these are two I can. I knew this first lot were shieldbug eggs but I wasn’t sure of the species. Luckily, an entomologist who follows me on Twitter was able to tell me that this clutch was laid by a Common green shieldbug (Palomena prasina) and, due to the greyish colour of the eggs, he could also tell that they had been parasitised, probably by a species of parasitic wasp.

240726 common green shieldbug eggs parasitised

As you can see, this second clutch of eggs had fared much better, escaping the wasp’s ovipositor to produce these tiny hatchlings. Despite their reddish colouring, these are also Common green shieldbugs; the nymphs will go through several changes of colour and patterning before they assume their final adult appearance.

240726 common green shieldbug hatchlings

Shieldbugs are go!

25 Saturday Mar 2023

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Common green shieldbugs like these overwinter as adults so it’s not that they’ve just hatched out but rather that the warmer temperatures and, some days, actual sunshine combine to tempt them out of these cosy hideaways under leaf litter or in cracks in bark.

230325 green shieldbug (1)

As you can see, these shieldbugs (scientific name Palomena prasina) aren’t always true to their name. During the winter months, their colour turns more brownish. It’s during the summer months that they can be seen wearing their true, bright green livery.

230325 green shieldbug (2)

Sunbathing bugs

16 Wednesday Mar 2022

Posted by in insects, spring

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The shallow bowl shape of the leaves of Winter heliotrope were perfect for the bugs enjoying Monday’s warm spring sunshine. In one small sheltered area I found several Common green shieldbugs (Palomena prasina) . . .

220316 common green shieldbug

two Hairy shieldbugs (Dolycoris baccarum) . . .

220316 hairy shieldbug

and two Dock bugs (Coreus marginatus).

220316 dock bug

Beaded with dew

18 Tuesday Jan 2022

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Here’s another recent surprise find, a Common green shieldbug (Palomena prasina) covered in early morning dewdrops. Obviously, it’s not green: these bugs overwinter as adults, changing their colouring from green to dark brown before the winter weather really sets in, usually around November. The British bugs website says these shieldbugs usually hibernate – perhaps this little beastie was caught out by the previously milder-than-usual temperatures.

220118 green shieldbug

Small and green

13 Tuesday Apr 2021

Posted by in insects, spring

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Slowly, slowly, more insects are emerging. When I was getting a Gorse photo for last Sunday’s yellow wildflower challenge, this teeny tiny Gorse weevil (Exapion ulicis) paid a visit. I’m not sure if it was getting salt from my hand as it seemed quite reluctant to leave.

210413 gorse weevil

And yesterday I was scanning a Buddleja for leaf mines when I had the feeling I was being watched. This Common green shieldbug (Palomena prasina) was very well camouflaged sitting perfectly still on its leaf.

210413 green shieldbug

275/366 Another hitchhiker

01 Thursday Oct 2020

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Another day, another hitchhiker, another shieldbug. Last time, it was a Hawthorn shieldbug, this time it was a Common green shieldbug (Palomena prasina). I have no idea where I picked this one up but sometime during today’s meander, it chose to fly or drop on to my backpack and hitched a ride home with me.

I popped it inside a glass – I knew those shot glasses would come in handy for something – and took a few photos of its underside, which I don’t usually get to see, before opening the window and letting it fly off into the sunset.

224/366 Burdock beasties

11 Tuesday Aug 2020

Posted by in insects, nature, plants, wildflowers

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Lesser burdock (Arctium minus) seems to be having a good year as I’ve been finding lots of vigorous, flowering plants during my local walks, and they’re home to some interesting mini-beasties. One I always look for is the Banded burdock fly (Terellia tussilaginis), and it also seems to be thriving locally.

200811 lesser burdock (4)200811 lesser burdock (5)200811 lesser burdock (6)

And, on one particular clump of burdock, I found a bounty of Common green shieldbugs (Palomena prasina), as I’ve done before (see my previous post Keeping it in the family, from September 2017). Once again, these were a mix of juvenile stages, 3rd and 4th instars, I think.

Of course, there are lots of other mini-beasties that also find Burdock flower nectar delicious – these two bees are just a couple of examples. What beasties have you seen on Burdock?

186/366 Miscellaneous minis

04 Saturday Jul 2020

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These are a few recent insect that have caught my eye …

200704 1 common green shieldbug

First up, the 4th instar of a Common green shieldbug that was walking along the outside of a building as I passed. These mini-beasties go through five different instars (stages) before becoming adults. For more see A (shield)bug’s life, September 2016.

200704 2 Grypocoris stysi

A flower bug that loves umbellifers, Grypocoris stysi. You can read more about him/her in my previous blog, Get a Gryp-o!, July 2016.

I found this Orange ladybird browsing on leaves covered with a white mould, their favourite food. See more on these little cuties in A Blast of Orange, July 2017.

200704 5 wasp black ichneumonid

I’ve been spotting a lot of Ichneumonid wasps this year. Most are quite difficult to identify, as you need to photograph them from several different angles to capture all the identifying features and I find they don’t usually stay still long enough.

200704 6 ladybird harlequin

And, last for today, what I think is a Harlequin ladybird, judging from the patterns on the now-empty pupa case. When newly emerged, ladybirds are often pale coloured and dot-less – the colours darken and the spots emerge in their first few hours as adults.