Hello to the admirers of all wonderful bug shield instars which make their appearance these days. Looking at the picture #5 of the thumbnails in message 401 and reading the reaction/identification by Harry Eales in messages 403 + 407, I would like to tell about an observation made last Saturday. While preparing a public nature walk with some guides, we found a "wants" on the leaves of an elder tree. Wants is the Dutch word for bug, schildwants = shield bug. I noticed the word Kohlwanza in one of the messages, this should be Kohlwanze, German for cabbage (shield) bug (in Dutch Koolwants, I don't know the species from sight).
The shield bug we saw was really brilliant: its back was creamy white with strong black markings, the rest was metallic gold-coloured, and the antennae had two yellow stretches between the black. It really brought to mind a medieval shield, of which the edge and upper part were clad in bronze or copper. Because the wood where we walked is part of an area around a castle, I provisionally called it the Castle Bug, and took it home for identification. My books gave no clue for these colours, but I found a site
http://www.gardensafari.net/dutch/schildwantsen.htm (it has an English version as well), which offers a nice series of portraits. The Castle bug is the larva of Troilus luridus, which has no Dutch name. Other sources mention a German name "Spitzbauchwanze" (= pointed belly bug) and English Sedate Shield Bug. Would this be the same as Stealthy ? The descriptions say it does not suck seeds, Steve, it sucks caterpillars (for seeds it needn't be stealthy, however, some seeds can jump ...). I found two pictures of the scarlet-backed version, like the one on thumbnail 5, on: http:
www.kreu-fleuch.de/wanzen/spitzbauchwanze.html (with German text) and a beautiful picture of the front part (head and shoulders) on
http://hemiptera.free.fr/Troilus_luridus.html.
There is a nice picture of the imago Troilus on http:
www.bollocks-designs.co.uk/idgallery/displayimage etc., which shows the striking feature of the yellow ring in the antennae.
My Castle bug (the creamy version is to be found on
http://www.compumess.nl/afb/fok/Macro/slides/cm_2004-08-16_18.htm) was released on an elder tree in an estate park, where I have some activities in a team of volunteers. While doing the maintenance of the orchards and the wood supply, we often observe interesting insects, but normally there is not much specialized knowledge available in the field other than for birds and some butterflies.
Well, I hope you keep enjoying observations of these fascinating insects like I will do. Thank you for reading my story !
Jan van der Brugge, Netherlands
] Now to find a live one. I can feel some beating coming on!
