Shieldbug lifecycle compilations

Hi everyone! 

Not been on the forums for a long time... good to see some familiar names on here still!

Most of you (that know me) know that I love shieldbugs. So I set about compiling life cycle compilations of the species where I'd managed to capture each stage from egg to adult (only 8 species so far, so it's work in progress).

This information (plus much more!) is available on the British Bugs website of course, but my thought was that seeing each stage side by side so to speak might be helpful for anyone to recognise species more easily and thus provide more records! :-)

Common Green shieldbug (Pentatomidae - Palomena prasina):

top left: eggs, then hatchlings/1st instar nymphs, then 2nd instars

centre left: 3rd instar, 4th instar, and a dark form 5th/final instar

Bottom left: light form 5th/final instar, Spring/Summer adult, Autumn/Winter adult.

Gorse shieldbug (Pentatomidae - Piezodorus lituratus):

top left: eggs, then hatchlings/1st instar nymphs, then 2nd instar

centre left: 3rd instar, 4th instar, and a dark form 5th/final instar

Bottom left: light form 5th/final instar, Spring/Summer adult, Autumn/Winter adult.

Hairy shieldbug (Pentatomidae - Dolycoris baccarum)

top left: eggs, then hatchlings/1st instar nymphs, then 2nd instar

centre left: 3rd instar, 4th instar, and a dark form 5th/final instar

Bottom left: light form 5th/final instar, Spring/Summer adult, Autumn/Winter adult.

Woundwort shieldbug (Pentatomidae - Eysarcoris venustissimus)

top left: eggs, then hatchlings/1st instar nymphs, then 2nd instar

centre left: 3rd instar, 4th instar, and a 5th/final instar

Bottom left: 5th/final instars with a teneral (recently moulted) adult, then adults from different angles as these don't have a seasonal colour variation.

Parent bug (Acanthosomatidae - Elasmucha grisea)

This species is different in the way that, as the common name suggests, the female stays with the eggs and nymphs until they are 2 or 3 weeks old.

top left: Female with eggs, then hatchlings/1st instar nymphs, then 2nd instars

centre left: 3rd instars, 4th instars, then 5th/final instars with some tenerals (recently moulted) and a few 4th instars due to moult.

Bottom left: 5th/final instars, Spring/Summer adult, Autumn/Winter adult.

Birch shieldbug (Acanthosomatidae - Elasmostethus interstinctus)

top left: eggs, then hatchlings/1st instar nymphs, then 2nd instar

centre left: 3rd instar, 4th instar, and a dark form 5th/final instar

Bottom left: light form 5th/final instar, Spring/Summer adult, Autumn/Winter adult.

Juniper shieldbug (Acanthosomatidae - Cyphostethus tristriatus)

top left: eggs, then hatchlings/1st instar nymphs, then 2nd instars

centre left: 3rd instar, 4th instar, and a dark form 5th/final instar

Bottom left: teneral 5th/final instar & skin, Adults in cop, Adult. (Again these don't seem to have any seasonal colour variations)

Dock bug (Coreidae - Coreus marginatus)

top left: eggs, then hatchlings/1st instar nymph, then 2nd instar

centre left: 3rd instar, 4th instar, and a dark 5th/final instar

Bottom left: lighter 5th/final instar, Teneral adult, typical adult.

Working hard on finding the missing stages for the other species so that I can eventually add to this collection! 

  • Thank you very much HAZY! :-D

  • Hi, quite an old thread now, but still interesting! I have rescued some eggs that were laid on a sheet whilst it was drying on the line, no parent in evidence. I cut out the section (it was an old sheet) and kept it in a jam jar. The eggs have now hatched, and the instars seem likely to be common green shield bugs. I'm aware that the mother would normally protect them for a while, but I'd like to release them as soon as possible....how long do the various instars last? Any thoughts on when and how to release them, or what to feed them on meanwhile would be welcome.
    I read that they eat the shell cases in the early days, but so far I've seen no evidence of that...

    Many thanks,
    Adrian
  • Here are some photos of my shield bugs, first the eggs as I found them:

    www.flickr.com/.../

    And here are the babies about three weeks later:

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/46179718@N06/49944282188/in/datetaken-public/

    They seem happy to remain clustered around the egg cases, but I'd really like to release them as soon as possible with best chance of survival. I haven't quite given them all names yet..... :o)

    Any advice welcome...

  • OK, well, yesterday after offering them various leaves, I found that they happily fed on young variegated holly. So, this morning, I released them onto the holly bush. I'll try to keep the blue tits away from them for a while, to give them a chance.

    As I said in my earlier post, they hatched on a cotton sheet. They were fairly innactive at first, and it occured to me that the environment was very dry. I wet a finger, and touched the cloth near to them to provide moisture. They became very active at this, and under a magnifying glass I could see them probing with their (proboscis?) and presumably sucking up the water.
    So, now I knew how they fed. I offered several different types of leaf, and although they walked on to them, there was no attempt to feed. Then I tried young holly leaves. They looked a bit tough to me, but I have seen shield bugs on the holly in the past. Almost at once, I could see that they were able to probe the leaf and feed, and over an hour or two, they had all migrated onto the leaf, and were clustered together.
    Even these tiny creatures have their own character. The first one to explore the leaves, and three outliers who left the pack altogether to explore the glass sides of the jam jar. Its been a great experience looking after them as surrogate mum for a few days, and I wish them well :o)