Little Devil

Well tucked away sitting on a leaf having lunch, this shield bug caught my eye on the tortured beech bush in the garden: only because I was looking hard to see where they had all gone from last year when it was positively teeming with them.

This is a Forest Bug Pentatoma rufipes - easily identifiable because of it's relatively larger size against other sheilds, the hunched shoulders and pale spot on it's back. They live as a rule in deciduous trees including orchards - feeding on fruit, caterpillars and other insects.

He was tucking into a two course lunch today! Enjoying having pierced the unripe cob nut shell with it's sharp proboscis (which you can see here) to suck up the sap for an appetiser, the main course was tucked away underneath - an insect leg - which I only spotted when it came up on the computer. No wonder he is so large with an appetite like that. He has a gland between his 2nd and 3rd pair of legs which emits foul smelling liquid if threatened so I was quite glad after my tiny wasp sting yesterday that we didn't come to blows being blipped.

I like this shot particularly because you can quite clearly see the compound eyes.

Little Devil - well apart from being a significant garden pest, just look at those bright red sensory receptors on it's head - almost like little horns :))