Sunday 29 September 2019

Red-legged Forest Bug

Here's a little fellow who likes to live in trees and suck the juice out of them.  The Forest Bug (Pentatoma rufipes) also known as th red-legged shield bug.


Shield bugs are so called because of their shape.  In the photo above you can see the distinctive square shoulders of this particular species.

And in the image below you can make out the light and dark brown pattern round the rear edge and perhaps the reddish tone of the legs.


These are not beetles but true bugs: instead of jaws to bite they have a rostrum tucked under their tummies, a sort of hyperdermic syringe to suck out juice from either plants or other insects.    True bugs are either homopterans where the wings do not overlap, such as froghoppers and aphids, or heteropterans where the wings do overlap at the back and usually show up as transparent.  You can see that the Forest Bug is a heteropteran.  They are quite good flyers, these, and apparently quite friendly!  This one seemed in no hurry to leave.

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