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).
111/366 It’s a bugs’ life
20 Monday Apr 2020
Tag Archives: Palomena prasina
46/366 Sunbathing
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.
The Shieldbug red-light district
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.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
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.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
What’s on the teasel, 1
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.
A (shield)bug’s life
15 Thursday Sep 2016
If you thought your life was complicated, think again.
Though it has just one generation each year, like many bugs Palomena prasina, the Common Green Shieldbug, has a very complex life cycle. Between egg and adult, it goes through five transitional phases (called instars) and at each stage, as it grows into adulthood, it looks a little different, its patterning and colouration varying each time it moults. As its name implies it is mostly green, though it can also have black markings and, as it approaches the time for winter hibernation, the adult shieldbug often changes to a bronze-brown colour.
Such variation can make Palomena prasina difficult to identify and their mostly green hues also act as good camouflage on the plants and bushes they inhabit so, although these bugs are supposedly common and widespread in Britain and at 12-14mm they’re relatively large, I haven’t seen as many as I expected. These are some I did manage to detect.
