Speaking of Sloes

Well I am a bugger and this is a bug. Dolycoris baccarum. I know that it’s Latin but just run that name over your tongue, “Dolly Chorus” it’s lovely.

It’s a Sloe Shieldbug.

The first interesting thing to know is that reportedly this bug has never been seen feeding on Blackthorn or Sloes. (don’t ask me, I just read that)

It’s colour can vary quite a lot although all the ones that I have ever seen have looked just like this. (I probably just didn’t recognise the others) The most definitive feature is the white banded antennae, other Shieldbugs don’t have them.

Pictures:

I have spoken before about this bug’s piercing mouth part, well, I think that I was talking about squash bugs then but these have them too. They use them to pierce plants and suck out the sap and this one is feeding on the grass.

In this next picture if you look closely there is a dew drop of sap on the end of it’s mouth part. (tucked between it’s legs, under it’s body)

Another name for this bug is the Hairy Shieldbug and although I have photographed it quite a few times before with lesser cameras I had never really seen just how hairy it is. It is a hairy shieldbug and given that it doesn’t like sloes, that would seem to be an appropriate name but everybody calls this one a Sloe Bug.

I was shocked by the second of these next two pictures. I had never really understood this animals elytra (wing cases) Nice to see.

Now I understand better. 🙂

It is just a hairy little bug that I fell in love with about fifteen years ago but I didn’t have such a captury camera then.

One day we will get the nymphs.

(Bugger is just another word for an entomologist, you should hear what I call mycologists)

Bugs From the House of Faberge

My pictures of this one are not very good. It was a heavily overcast day and the bug was very shy.

Nevertheless it has to have a post.

If I saved every penny that I earned for the rest of my life I doubt that I would be able to afford one of these, they are exquisite. If I ever did have one of these I would give it to someone that I loved as a present. Dream on.

It is a nymph of the Bronze Shield Bug.

We have had this nymph on before in “A Bug to Hug” this is what it looked like then.

This is what it has become today.

Come Back! I can make you famous.

Come back…… Stupid bug.

….. I’ve got connections……. 😦

Love you 🙂

Nymphs of the Woundwort Shield Bug.

Unlike the last bug, which was carved from sandstone by an ancient and now forgotten civilisation, these bugs are actually manufactured by a jeweller in Sheffield. They are made of platinum with red  copper insets and tiny gemstones around the edges and they are exquisitely beautiful. (Quite expensive too)

Well that is what I have always believed. New evidence has emerged that seems to suggest that these bugs are capable of reproducing themselves, with no master craftsmen involved.

This is a Woundwort Shield Bug. (They are quite small and so only get to occupy the middle bit of the picture)

You might remember that back in June they were getting up to hanky panky in the bushes. So much so that I was having to cover Fizz’s eyes when we went for walks.

I had never seen anything like it. So what was the result of all of this monkey business?

Try and guess what these are.

I have never seen these little animals before but there are certain clues as to what they might be. The plant that they are on is Woundwort. They are following a Woundwort Shield Bug around like little Ducklings and they are quacking.

I am pretty certain that these are the love children of the beautiful Woundwort Shield Bug otherwise known as late instar nymphs of Eysacoris venustissimus. (Actually I know that is the case because I am a naturalist)

Another one for the collection then. 🙂

Insects love their children too, you know.

The Nymph Gallery

Sorry this is not a post about a sexy little water spirit it is a gallery of photographs of Coreus marginatus, the Dock Bug.

Yesterday I wrote a post about the rostrum of Coreus marginatus and it got 37 likes. Who would have thought entomology could be so interesting?

I know that it is a bit much doing the bug twice but I need to have these photographs on the blog so that I can find them when I need them.

You never know when you are going to need photographs of a late instar nymph of Coreus marginatus. “Be Prepared” that’s my motto.

Dock Bugs and their Fruit.

The first photographs that I am going to show you date back to early June. Dock Bugs can often be found on Dock ( 🙂 ) and Dock can be very colourful so it makes a good picture so I started photographing for the colour but then I got distracted and in the end I never got around to posting these pictures.

These are Dock Bugs.

They look like a Shield Bug but they are actually Squashbugs. The most obvious difference being that Squashbugs have four segments to their antennae and Shield Bugs have five.

Here are some Dock Bugs on a nice red leaf.

This was when I became distracted by their mouth parts. Dock Bugs have a long piercing beak like structure called a rostrum that they use to suck sap from the Dock that they feed on. This beak is normally carried under the body and I hadn’t really paid it much attention.

You can see it in these next photographs.

In the heat of passion and probably being over excited by the red leaf, my bugs threw their inhibitions to the wind and let it all hang out…

I looked at these pictures and thought, “Blimey! My Bug’s got an extra leg!”

That is when I forgot about the colours and became interested in photographing the mouth parts.

Well that post never happened. I became distracted by some pretty little thing and forgot about the rostrum of Coreus marginatus until today.

Today I found and photographed the result of all of that hanky panky amid the Dock leaves and I do like getting the nymphs of the species.

This is a late instar nymph of Coreus marginatus. Note the different body  shape and narrow “shoulders.”

I like getting the little ones. 🙂

Thank you for your patience, I got there in the end.

A Bug to Hug

Sometimes we can forget how fortunate we are. I am guessing that you are indoors right now, so am I.

Last August I was living on the street and at night it was so cold that I couldn’t control the shaking. I remember that well. I felt a bit chilly last night, this is the month that the nights turn cold.

Tonight and at this moment in time I have everything that I need. Shelter, food, warmth, a means to iron and wash my clothes so that I can mingle A shower and no fear of the police. I even have a Bug to Hug. Not everyone has all of these things.

I am what is known as a “Mark”, I can’t turn away from a man in trouble. The last time that I tried to live in a city I became instantly famous and it cost me five pounds to step out of my front door but it breaks my heart to see people suffer. I moved.

Some people think scrounger, probably makes more money than me, chooses to live that way etc. It is just that from my own experience I can’t think like that.

I don’t have much to give but I do have a Bug to Hug and sometimes that is enough. If you haven’t got a bug then please feel free to hug mine.

That is the larva of a Bronze Shieldbug and isn’t it lovely?

Although the people that I would like to reach don’t have access to indoors let alone a computer and can’t see this.

“I know. My love is with you. I haven’t got any money. Hang in there it might get better, fight as well as you can and I know.”

Bronze Shieldbug. It is Hug a Bug Day and if you are not in a position to hug a bug then let a bug hug you.

I am the lover of and supporter of the trodden on glasses also a member of the down trodden classes and I am happy with that.

Forest Shieldbug

Pentatoma rufipes. I am just continuing with my Shieldbug theme for a moment while I wait for my hair to dry (as if) 🙂 I used a picture of a forest as the header because I haven’t got many pictures of this one. All sorts of things live in the forest, there is something watching me in that picture and I will show you at the end.

Forest Shieldbug imago:

This is the nymph of the Forest Shieldbug and I think this is fifth instar.

That is just another of my collections that I am still working on.

So what was in the forest. Sorry about the quality it was a long way away and dark in there.

I see you seeing me. Don’t worry I am just looking for bugs. 🙂

Green Shieldbug

Just a little one for my own collection this is a nymph of the Green Shieldbug, Palomena Prasina.

Just like Butterflies Shieldbugs go through four moults before they reach the adult stage. So when they hatch they are known as first instar and four moults later they are known as fith instar after that they become an imago (adult).

Each instar looks a bit different than the last so when trying to collect the set you have to get all five instars and the adult. The Green Shieldbug has two different colour forms so there are twelve to collect and now I have got two of them.

Not a great count but you have to start somewhere. I think this one is a fifth instar as it’s “shoulders” are starting to develop.

I know it is a bit sad really but oh well, only ten more forms to identify. 🙂 I think that this one is a lovely colour.

Here are some older pictures of an adult Green Shieldbug.

Dogging

Just catching up with my lost weekend here. On Saturday I took a break from my bird watching to take Fizz for a walk. It was a pretty miserable overcast day and I wasn’t expecting to do anything other than exercise the dog.

We chose a nice place to walk.

It seemed pleasant enough but I soon became aware that the bushes were full of couples.

I mean craft hobbyists engaged in making jewellery. I kept Fizz distracted by throwing the ball for her, she is only little.

There was just so many of them, “at it”

“Get a leaf! Why don’t you?”

This is becoming quite an issue in the countryside and a local nature reserve has closed it’s only car park because of “improper use of the facilities.” I can only guess that they’ve got Woundwort Shieldbugs too.

The Shiny Jewels of Woundwort

Hedge Woundwort, Stachys sylvatica is a tall purple spike of a flower that belong to the family Lamiaceae, commonly known as the Mint or Dead-nettle  family.

It is a flower of hedgerow and woodland and grows well in shade. The flowers are arranged in whorls or rings on the upright spike. Each whorl has about six flowers and there are green leafy bracts below each ring of flowers.

The leaves are heart shaped and toothed. The plant as the name suggests has long been used in herbal medicine, mostly applied to wounds to staunch blood and close the wound, Don’t eat it, it is not internal medicine.

In the field, if you cut yourself in the right season, pick the leaves and cover the wound as you would with a plaster.

The stem is square and covered in fine hairs. The stem is solid unlike most Dead-nettles, which are hollow stemmed.

So it is useful and it is pretty, it grows in the hedgerow in summer but there is more to it than that.

This isn’t a post about the flower. Woundwort comes with it’s own shiny, beautiful, little bug and this is a post about nature’s jewellery.

The Woundwort Shieldbug, Eysarcoris venustissimus is a small and exquisitely beautiful bug that feeds on Woundwort. It is made of platinum with rich copper insets on the back and face and tiny gemstones set around the border.

If you have woundwort growing near you then you almost certainly have these little bugs too, it is well worth having a close look.

That is a very nice accessory for a flower to have.

Animal Magic

“Just like that”

It’s your destiny

The Swallows have fledged, or at least they are fledging. They are still in the nest today but they have been out and they can fly.

It has taken me a few days watching and all that you get are a couple of short video’s but for me, my understanding and the pleasure that I got from watching them makes a few days just a drop in the ocean. It was time well spent.

Anyway you should be glad that you don’t have to watch the whole twenty hours of video, that I now have to sort and delete from my machine to free up space.

Here are the best bits.

Yesterday morning there were five birds on the nest, there were five birds on the nest and then there were four birds on the nest. I had missed the very first flight and only realised when number five returned to the nest.

This first video starts with the mother calling for them to leave the nest, there is a little comic interlude of the way that they follow flies, their little heads bobbing in unison and in the last bit the second bird to approach the nest is the returning chick. Does he bring food back or do the others just think that he has?

This next video shows them leaving the nest and returning. They spent most of the day fluttering around inside the little alley way that has become their home and by the end of the day they were all settled back on the nest but this is fledging. Today I think that they have ventured outside and seen the blue sky but they still return to the nest.

These birds have made me think a lot about nature as a whole thing and about life and death in the wild. The caterpillars that I am trying to raise are falling to the parasitoid flies that these Swallows depend on for food and survival. The parents have done a really good job of raising them given the wet weather we have been having. I have often looked out in the pouring rain and wondered how they are managing to raise a brood and now this, flight.

I am so in in love and in awe of them and so damned jealous.

I am jealous because they get to eat those delicious crunchy flies, or perhaps because they can raise offspring in a matter of weeks and not the 26 years it usually takes us. Maybe I am jealous of something else altogether…..