looduskalender.ee

Hairy shieldbugs

 

 

The shieldbugs that have wintered as mature insects are busy from spring onwards but of course they are more numerous in the second half of summer. The larvae of the shieldbugs live in similar habitats as the mature insects and even feed as the adults, they are only  smaller and their wings have not become fully developed yet.

 

The shieldbugs or stinkbugs feed on the sap of plants but entomologists also state that they eat smaller insects, so raptors of a kind.

 

The body of a shieldbug is broad and flat, the mature insect is a little over a centimetre long. As colouring goes, with a quite arresting pattern. The tips of the elytra, or covering wings, are on top of each other when resting, and between them we see the triangular small shield. They have short antennae; the colour varies , the sucking beaks by which they suck sap from plants or berries are turned downwards and also segmented. We can find the bugs on plants on the ground, shrubs and trees. 

 

Larger insect-eaters are sent off by a noxious-smelling and nasty-tasting liquid. It is produced from glands on the thorax of the shieldbug. To berry eaters – in the home garden or forest – the taste, making you spit, is familiar.