Shieldbugs. (1 Viewer)

coaltit · Sep 16, 2014

Shieldbugs

gillean55 said:
Hello Harry

I'll certainly be checking through the archived articles and looking your stuff up before next spring.

I'm not sure if I'll be going down the beating tray route though, as although it's obviously an essential tool for recording purposes, my main objective is to get in-situ photos of the shieldbugs whenever possible. I'm prepared to accept that I'm not going to find everything!

Incidentally, although the year may be over for Parent Bugs, there's still plenty of SBs up and about at the moment. I counted six different species today: Green (2) and Hawthorn (1) on Alder in Kingmoor (Carlisle), and Bronze (3), Spiked (6 - including a mating pair), Gorse (3) and Birch (2) on Glasson Moss. Needless to say I didn't find anything I was actually looking for!

Paul

Hi paul

I have taken a general Interest just lately In different things around me
And Its generally my conservatory these wee beasties come Into anything
From butterflies, parasitic wasps, hoverflies, droneflies, even a common damselflie once, and yes occasionally shieldbugs, I have Issues trying to
Download onto the forum Itself so I generally download onto the tv forum
Thou I have had technical Issues downloading onto the site, a week or two
Back I videoed a shieldbug In my conservatory To get It to walk I had to
Nudge It with my finger, on your posts you mention hawthorn shield bug
I,ve not looked it up but somewhere in my mind I have seen that before
regarding this shieldbug I will try and download It here hopefully the site
Techies have sorted the problem out for me to download fingers crossed.

gillean55 · Sep 16, 2014

Hello coaltit

If you are interested I've attached a shot of the Hawthorn SB I found this morning in my local nature reserve. It's not one that I see very often, so I was very happy to find it!

Paul

coaltit · Sep 16, 2014

Beautiful paul yes thats the one I videoed I,ve also managed to download It too onto the site.

Stuart Goodwin · Sep 18, 2014

Morning all.

How common is the Southern Great Green Shield Bug (GGSB) I recently came across an all green shield bug on the edge of a patch of brambles and nettles. Looking at the British Bugs website, it seems that the GGSB is all green, and the common Great Green Shield Bug has a brown lower back (not the correct term, but I have only just got into Shield Bugs).

I would have taken a photo, but the camera didn't like a green bug on a green leaf against a green background. I can't think why!

Thank you in advance.

Ps. The location was the Kent Wildlife Trust Cromer's Wood reserve.

aeshna5 · Sep 18, 2014

Sandy73 said:
Morning all.

How common is the Southern Great Green Shield Bug (GGSB) I recently came across an all green shield bug on the edge of a patch of brambles and nettles. Looking at the British Bugs website, it seems that the GGSB is all green, and the common Great Green Shield Bug has a brown lower back (not the correct term, but I have only just got into Shield Bugs).

I would have taken a photo, but the camera didn't like a green bug on a green leaf against a green background. I can't think why!

Thank you in advance.

Ps. The location was the Kent Wildlife Trust Cromer's Wood reserve.

It's not that common + struggles to survive our winters. There have been records over recent years from the London area though often being numerous one year + then disappearing.

Kent would probably a good prospect of finding one.

Stuart Goodwin · Sep 18, 2014

aeshna5 said:
It's not that common + struggles to survive our winters. There have been records over recent years from the London area though often being numerous one year + then disappearing.

Kent would probably a good prospect of finding one.

Thank you for the reply, I'm looking at getting the photographic guide to Shield Bugs to help with ID.

Regards.

aeshna5 · Sep 20, 2014

Sandy73 said:
Thank you for the reply, I'm looking at getting the photographic guide to Shield Bugs to help with ID.

Regards.

Recommend it, though there are a couple of newer species not covered. Are you familiar with the British Bugs website which has some excellent photos of adults/nymphs of shieldbugs as well as many true bug families.

gillean55 · Sep 20, 2014

Final stage Hawthorn Shieldbug nymph to adult - how long does it take?

Hello

Last week I found what I believe to be a final stage Hawthorn Shieldbug nymph in a local Alder tree (see attached photo). The tree was in a stand of about 20 and it was the only one I found. Two days later I checked all the trees out again and found just a single adult (shown earlier in this thread) - again in the same tree. In both cases I just carried out a visual search and so no doubt only found a small fraction of what was actually there.

Probably a daft question, but is it plausible that this is the same specimen? I've no idea how long these transformations take.

Thanks

Paul

gillean55 · Sep 22, 2014

Juniper Bushes near Mosedale (Cumbria)

Before I call it a day for the year, I thought I'd better correct a statement made earlier about the Juniper Shieldbug record for Mosedale in Cumbria. I made the rash assumption that it must relate to the dale to the west of the hamlet of Mosedale, due to the large number of juniper bushes found by the roadside here.

However, although the map on the Tullie House website is very low resolution, the River Caldew is clearly marked, and from this it's obvious that the record is actually to the north of the hamlet of Mosedale and not to the west (apparently somewhere in the Linewath area).

As I was passing through here yesterday I had a brief look for juniper bushes in this area, but didn't find any amongst all the gorse and ferns. However, I wasn't prepared to walk very far and the combination of my poor eyesight and third-rate bins was presumably the reason I drew a blank.

After Harry's comment on my earlier photo, I had another look at the berry-bearing junipers to the west of Mosedale anyway, but despite a more thorough search than last time I still didn't find anything. So perhaps they aren't here or perhaps it's just too late in the year.

Swindon Addick · Oct 3, 2014

Not the best photo I've ever taken, but hopefully this is enough for someone to tell me what this is?
It was by a pond in north Wiltshire, with a hawthorn hedge and mixed woodland nearby.

Papa 10 · Oct 3, 2014

Swindon Addick said:
Not the best photo I've ever taken, but hopefully this is enough for someone to tell me what this is?
It was by a pond in north Wiltshire, with a hawthorn hedge and mixed woodland nearby.

I am far from being an expert but would suggest this is Spiked Shield-bug (Picromerus bidens), whose English name is derived from the 'shoulder spikes'.

aeshna5 · Oct 4, 2014

Looks more like Pentatoma rufipes to me.

pdwinter · Oct 4, 2014

aeshna5 said:
Looks more like Pentatoma rufipes to me.

+1

Swindon Addick · Oct 4, 2014

Thanks - that looks like a good fit now that I've googled it. Very striking insect.

ApusApus · Oct 4, 2014

aeshna5 said:
Looks more like Pentatoma rufipes to me.

To me as well.

Shane

Papa 10 · Oct 4, 2014

aeshna5 said:
Looks more like Pentatoma rufipes to me.

Bloody beginners who are useless with internet searches, but it was only a suggestion. Attached is one I photographed which prompted my search, I can now see this is also Pentatoma rufipes due the 'blunt' shoulders as opposed to them being 'spiked' (unless I've also got this one wrong).
Still we live and learn.

pdwinter · Oct 4, 2014

Papa 10 said:
Bloody beginners who are useless with internet searches, but it was only a suggestion. Attached is one I photographed which prompted my search, I can now see this is also Pentatoma rufipes due the 'blunt' shoulders as opposed to them being 'spiked' (unless I've also got this one wrong).
Still we live and learn.

That's another Pentatoma rufipes - the spot (here orange but can be paler) at the end of the scutellum distinguishes it from lookalikes.

The trouble with internet searches for pictures is that you come across wrongly labelled (aka misidentified) insects. A good field guide overcomes these problems. This is a good page for shieldbugs.

Papa 10 · Oct 4, 2014

pdwinter said:
That's another Pentatoma rufipes - the spot (here orange but can be paler) at the end of the scutellum distinguishes it from lookalikes.

The trouble with internet searches for pictures is that you come across wrongly labelled (aka misidentified) insects. This is a good page for shieldbugs.

Paul
Again thank you for the confirmation. As I have several unidentified insect photographs could you put a scientific name to the attached Ichneumon Fly please.

pdwinter said:
A good field guide overcomes these problems..

Agree 100% but when you live in 1 bed supported accomodation space is at an absolute premium (no space in kitchen for fridge or freezer & no space in lounge for bookcase) hence my disposal of a very comprehensive wildlife (mainly birds) library so I revert to the internet and have 'bookmarked' the British Bugs link.

pdwinter · Oct 4, 2014

Papa 10 said:
Paul
Again thank you for the confirmation. As I have several unidentified insect photographs could you put a scientific name to the attached Ichneumon Fly please.

Can't help you with that I'm afraid, Papa 10 |=)| My brain would go into meltdown if I tried to learn the Ichneumonids - c.3300 in the UK.

Papa 10 · Oct 4, 2014

pdwinter said:
Can't help you with that I'm afraid, Papa 10 |=)| My brain would go into meltdown if I tried to learn the Ichneumonids - c.3300 in the UK.

So I've got no chance whatever with my half a brain :smoke:, just need to see and photograph the male Giant Ichneumon as I've managed the female and these are easy to I/D even for me. Thank you anyway.

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