18 Tuesday Jan 2022
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.
13 Tuesday Apr 2021
Tags
British insects, Common Green Shieldbug, Exapion ulicis, Gorse weevil, Green shieldbug, Palomena prasina
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.
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.
01 Thursday Oct 2020
Posted in insects
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.
20 Monday Apr 2020
First, the sunbathing – sometimes alone …
… sometimes with a friend.
Then, later, the sex!
Credits: Today’s post has featured the Green shieldbug (Palomena prasina) and the Dock bug (Coreus marginatus).
15 Saturday Feb 2020
Tags
British insects, Common Green Shieldbug, Green shieldbug, Palomena prasina, sunbathing shieldbug
Obviously, these photos were not taken today, as Storm Dennis is currently blasting the British Isles – though, in truth, here in south Wales we are not getting quite as much rain as I expected, nor are we being battered as severely as we were by the fiercely gusting winds that accompanied last weekend’s Storm Ciara, for which I am extremely grateful.
My photos of this Common green shieldbug (Palomena prasina) were taken a week ago, on a warm (for the time of year) sunny day. And, as I have just read in a tweet by SEWBReC, our local biodiversity records centre, that ‘Now is a good time of year to spot shieldbugs sunbathing on (rare!) sunny days’, I thought I would make this little sunbather my critter of the day.
03 Friday May 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature, spring
Tags
#365DaysWild, British insects, Dock bug, Eristalis sp, Green shieldbug, harlequin ladybird, hoverfly, insects on bramble, Nursery web spider, Speckled wood, Syrphus sp, wasp
Ingredients: 1 patch of Bramble, lashings of sunshine, a tablespoon of warmth, a dash of Springtime
Method: Stand and stare
Result: Nursery web spider, Dock bug, hoverfly (Syrphus sp.), Speckled wood butterfly, Green shieldbug, bee species, another hoverfly (Eristalis sp.), Harlequin ladybird, and wasp (Vespula sp.).
22 Tuesday May 2018
Tags
British insects, Dolycoris baccarum, Green shieldbug, Hairy shieldbug, Palomena prasina, shield bugs, shieldbug
There’s a little track I often walk down, or up, between my home and Penarth Marina, that’s not been touched by the Council’s destructive strimmers (so far), so it’s a great place to look for wildflowers and critters, and it can take me 30 minutes or more to walk its 100 metres.
When I walked this way the other day, I came across this little Green shieldbug (Palomena prasina). Just look at that innocent-looking face … but don’t be fooled. It was probably the only one of maybe 30 Green shieldbugs I saw that was on its own – all the others were working on ensuring the continuation of their species.
Even the Hairy shieldbugs (Dolycoris baccarum) I found (only 3 of those) were at it! Given all the bad news we hear these days about declining insect populations, I hope this means the shieldbugs are doing okay.
12 Tuesday Sep 2017
I was checking out a Burdock plant the other day (I rather like their flowers and seed heads, and they have their own special fly) when I suddenly noticed this Green shieldbug and then another one, and another one, and another one …
Turns out there was at least one adult and six nymphs, though more may have been lurking undiscovered. I’m assuming they were all members of the same family, but that is pure surmise.
17 Thursday Aug 2017
Posted in flowers, insects, nature, wildflowers
Tags
British insects, Dolycoris baccarum, Green shieldbug, insect behaviour, insects on teasels, Palomena prasina, Sloe shieldbug, Teasel
This is the sight that greeted me as I wandered home through Dingle Park the other day.
A Sloe shieldbug (Dolycoris baccarum) had its head buried deeply into the gaps between the spines of a teasel flower head. The tiny purple flowers had finished so it wasn’t nectaring, and I would’ve thought the flower head too tough for it to be sucking plant sap, so what on earth was it doing?
This little Green shieldbug nymph (Palomena prasina), watching from a nearby grass stem (you can see it in the background of the first image), looked as confused and bemused as I was.
After a few minutes, the Parent bug backed out of its spiny possie but it didn’t move from the teasel.
This was a good opportunity to get a photo of the underside of the bug … but I never did discover what it had been doing.
earthstar 
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