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
ginger says
So that’s what the bug was. It was very fun to watch…the kids loved it!!!
Thanks Donna….:)
Tanya says
Donna, you are one of the sweetest women I know…..however, you are also a nerd!, and I mean that in the nicest way!!! 😀
Michelle says
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. 🙁
Michelle says
Ok Donna. You have been tagged.
michiellee says
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.
Kimberly says
i planted 3 sunflowers to show a friend what they look like and one night someone or something took the head of the sunflower we thought it was some kids messing around but today the other two were gone but none of my other flowers were gone.
Thank you for tell me about the squirrels that helped now ill plant them inside