Pied Shield Bug

Pied Shield Bug (Tritomegas bicolor)

While poking around the garden in search of new arrivals the other morning, I came across this handsome little creature trundling along one of the iris leaves near the entrance gate. It's a Pied Shield Bug (Tritomegas bicolor), one of the more striking members of its family. Smaller than most of its relatives, it's sometimes mistaken for a ladybird. Like many other shield bugs, it's a herbivore; it sticks its strawlike mouthparts into Black Horehound (Ballota nigra) and various dead-nettle species and sucks out the juices. It's found (often on the ground) in hedgerows and gardens, and along the edges of woodland – areas where its host plants occur. Common throughout much of southern England and Wales, it is rarer northwards, and missing entirely from Scotland and Ireland. Elsewhere in the world, it's found across Europe and North Africa, east to central Asia. Unlike many insect mothers, the female Pied Shield Bug is an attentive parent. She builds a shallow scrape nest in the soil, lays her eggs in it, and then stands guard over them for the three weeks it takes them to hatch, rotating the eggs occasionally with her head. Once the young have hatched, she leads them to an appropriate food plant. Though adults may be seen year-round, April to August is said to be the best time to look for them. Given that we have both Black Horehound and Red Dead-Nettle in abundance here in the garden, that means we should be seeing them for months.