The Shield Bug's New Clothes
A freshly moulted Hawthorn shield bug, leaving behind its old exoskeleton.
I found a group of Hawthorn shield bugs, Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale, on a low branch of one of my trees. As it was late in the afternoon, I ran and got a large plastic container and collected a few to photograph in the better light of morning. Reading up on these shield bugs, I discovered that after hatching in spring they go through several developmental stages as nymphs, called instars, before finally transitioning into the final adult stage in autumn getting ready to hibernate over the winter. They reappear in the spring to mate, lay eggs, and the life cycle begins again. The six bugs I had collected were a mixture of the final instar with a couple of adults. In fact, I had thought this individual was dead as it was not moving, but then watched it shed off it's instar coat and moult into the adult form. In the time I kept them, two more of the instars made the transition into adults. I then returned them to exactly the same branch where I had found them.
The Shield Bug's New Clothes
A freshly moulted Hawthorn shield bug, leaving behind its old exoskeleton.
I found a group of Hawthorn shield bugs, Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale, on a low branch of one of my trees. As it was late in the afternoon, I ran and got a large plastic container and collected a few to photograph in the better light of morning. Reading up on these shield bugs, I discovered that after hatching in spring they go through several developmental stages as nymphs, called instars, before finally transitioning into the final adult stage in autumn getting ready to hibernate over the winter. They reappear in the spring to mate, lay eggs, and the life cycle begins again. The six bugs I had collected were a mixture of the final instar with a couple of adults. In fact, I had thought this individual was dead as it was not moving, but then watched it shed off it's instar coat and moult into the adult form. In the time I kept them, two more of the instars made the transition into adults. I then returned them to exactly the same branch where I had found them.