Spined Soldier Bug
May 4th while outside looking at the different kinds of bees that were visiting the white clover in my backyard, I happened upon a cloverleaf with a cluster of bug eggs. I brought the leaf inside the house because I intended to record the hatching with my scanner. It has been a while since I’ve made a bug movie and I have been indirectly looking for bug eggs since last year. Two days later, the eggs hatched while I was very busy cooking dinner, but I managed to scan the eggs at least approximately every 45 seconds. Dinner was a little late.
I edited the images, there are over 80, and I used around 30 images to make a movie for donnayoung.org. I will post the movie in the science section and it will be available for viewing during late spring through early summer.
Since then I have been trying to identify the bugs. At this time, I believe the bugs are spined soldier bugs: Insecta: Hemiptera: Pentatomidae, scientific name: Podisus maculiventris. I came to that conclusion based on the eggs. Just today I learned that the bug eggs that I have fit the description of spined soldier bug eggs. From what I have read about spined soldier bugs, they are predatory, the good guys. They prey on caterpillars and leaf beetle larvae.
Around 40 hours later, I put the bugs under the microscope and I took a few pictures [how to do that: Digital Images & Microscopes]. It was challenging to get a decent picture of the bug because they walk very fast. After taking a few pictures, I let the bugs go outside near the place where I found the eggs.
Hatched spined soldier bug eggs
Spined soldier bug nymph
Side view of spined soldier bug
I am almost tired of researching bugs. Just yesterday, I used the microscope to look at some bugs that were on an oak leaf. Several clear caterpillars were eating the leaf and I could see two of the caterpillar’s systems in operation under the microscope. An insect’s heart is the rear part of a full-length vessel. I could see the vessel in the clear caterpillar and its pulsating heart. I could also see its digestive system. I took pictures, but I doubt that I will post them. That has nothing to do with the main topic of my post.
An off-topic update on the Green Caterpillar: It’s alive and still in pupa stage.
Donna Young
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So that’s what the bug was. It was very fun to watch…the kids loved it!!!
Thanks Donna….:)
I am greatly relieved that you have learned what kind of bugs these are and that they are the good guys.
Donna, you are one of the sweetest women I know…..however, you are also a nerd!, and I mean that in the nicest way!!!
Glad you found out what the bug is. Looking forward to more updates on the green caterpillar.
I went looking for bug eggs the other day and couldn’t find any.
Ok Donna. You have been tagged.
Donna, I showed Noah the bugs hatching, he wasn’t impressed. I was told, “I don’t like to watch bugs hatch”. hmmmm, if he wasn’t so much like me I would wonder about that comment.