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.