please empty your brain below |
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Saw the image, instantly recognised it, and hoped that you squished it. These stink bugs are menaces. I have had the dishonour of being in the presence of its eponymous smell - I'd describe it as rotten coriander. Thanks to whoever unknowingly squished it, otherwise it may have started a new life and a whole family of its own in London.
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So today I'll be seeking some suitable situation, so I can use the word 'marmorated'.
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Definitely a shield bug but I can't tell if it was a Brown Marmorated Stink Bug, it looks paler in your pic. We found a rare shield bug once and Twitter (as was) helped identify it. Can't remember who it was but I usually start with @flygirlnhm
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It looks to me much more like Pentatoma rufipes, the Forest or Red-legged Shieldbug, which is also much commoner. The “shoulders” are much wider and more pointed than on Marmorated, and I cannot see any marmorations on it.
Shieldbugs are not beetles. |
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I've added some shieldbug speculation to the end of the post...
...and oh, not a beetle. I'll never make an entomologist. |
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So it was a justified bug termination and you take credit for it.
Klendathu is watching. |
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If shieldbugs are not beetles, what are they?
dg writes: bugs |
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I can't recall seeing a shieldbug in my garden at all this year. Some years there are lots of them, mainly the green ones, as they hatch out and group around the plants.
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And this is the same day that a Bee network was introduced into Manchester by the mayor.
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I did not know that "bug" is a specific classification for a certain kind of insect. I now discover that a flea is also classified as a bug, which is certainly a fact to remember. My immediate thought on seeing today's photo was "that's a weevil, not a beetle" - wrong of course, especially as it turns out a weevil IS a kind of beetle. I'm another who will never make an entymologist, clearly.
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TW, you mean coriander smells even worse when it's rotten? How is that even possible?
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I'm glad it's not just me who ponders about how I've changed the course of of a small thing's life. Beetles often smuggle a trip home from a weekend camping for instance.
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I thought stinkbugs only existed in Mark Twain books and Captain Beefheart records.
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Wendy: there are some very interesting genetics involved in smell/taste perception of coriander. It seems we both have the same “dislike” genes!!
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I can heartily recommend Richard Jones' recently published book in the New Naturalist series entitled "Shieldbugs" which discusses their smells among other things. Stinkbugs are what Americans call all shieldbugs.
I can also recommend his 2017 book in the same series on "Beetles", and "Call of nature - a natural history of dung" . All, especially the last, are amusingly written, not a very common attribute of books on wildlife. Learn about the cubic poo of wombats. |
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I haven't been this invested in animal manslaughter since Philip Larkin merked that hedgehog with his mower!
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DB83: yep, and I'm of a mind that it's more common than people realise.
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