Green

Green Shield Bug (Palomena prasina)

Another day, another shield bug! This one is the Green Shield Bug, so named for rather obvious reasons. When they emerge from hibernation in April and May, adults are this bright green colour. Note that only the last two segments of their antennae and their "tarsi" (i.e. the lowest segment of their legs) are pink. In the superficially similar Gorse Shield Bug, the whole leg and the whole antenna are pink. Green Shield Bugs are mating like crazy at the moment, as they only have a few more weeks to live. The female will lay a bunch of small green eggs on a leaf somewhere (we'll be looking), and the youngsters will go through five different instar stages during the summer before reaching adulthood in the fall. They'll be a deep bronzy colour when they go into hibernation for the winter. Green Shield Bugs live in a wide variety of habitats across much of Britain (though unrecorded in Scotland so far) and feed on a variety of trees and shrubs.