The green shield bug (''Palomena prasina'') is a European

shield bug The Pentatomoidea are a superfamily of insects in the Heteroptera suborder of the Hemiptera order. As Hemiptera, they share a common arrangement of sucking mouthparts. The roughly 7000 species under Pentatomoidea are divided into 21 families (1 ...

species in the family

Pentatomidae Pentatomidae is a family of insects belonging to the order Hemiptera, generally called shield bugs or stink bugs. Pentatomidae is the largest family in the superfamily Pentatomoidea, and contains around 900 genera and over 4700 species.Robert G ...

. The name might equally apply to several other species in the tribe

Nezarini Nezarini is a tribe of stink bugs in the family Pentatomidae. Genera There are at least 21 described genera in the Nezarini including: * ''Acrosternum ''Acrosternum'' is a genus of stink bugs in the family Pentatomidae. There are more tha ...

, or if referred-to as a "green stink bug", it might more appropriately belong to the larger

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

n bug, ''

Acrosternum hilare The green stink bug or green soldier bug (''Chinavia hilaris'') is a stink bug of the family Pentatomidae. Taxonomy The species was previously placed in the genus ''Acrosternum'' but has been classified as in the genus ''Chinavia'' in the more ...

''. The adult green shield bug ranges in the colour of their backs from bright green to bronze, without any substantial markings. Green shield bugs are a very common shield bug throughout

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, including

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, and are found in a large variety of habitats, including gardens. They have been found as far north as 63° N latitude.

Life cycle

In Europe, the bright green shield bugs appear in April or May, having hibernated as imagoes in

humus In classical soil science, humus is the dark organic matter in soil that is formed by the decomposition of plant and animal matter. It is a kind of soil organic matter. It is rich in nutrients and retains moisture in the soil. Humus is the Lati ...

during the winter. They live by eating the sap from within plants in apples, pears and hazelnuts. They fatten for a month and then mate in June. The imago's coloration changes over the summer months from green to greenish browns even bronze to ready for the

Autumn Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September ( Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Sou ...

, after which the life cycle will end. Mating is back-to-back. The female lays her eggs in hexagonal batches of 25 to 30, and a single female will lay three to four batches. After the eggs hatch, the green shield bug enter a larval stage (which is really their first nymphal stage) where, in general, they remain together in sibling communities. This is made possible by the excretion of an aggregation pheromone. In case of danger, another pheromone is released which causes dispersal. The larval stage is followed by four more nymphal stages as well as moulting between each one. The green shield bug displays different colouration during each nymphal stage, light brown, black or green-black, and in the final stage, the imago, is bright green with short wings. Usually the imago stage is reached in September, with hibernation occurring in November.

Gallery

File:Insekt_Eier_Gelege_verm_Palomena_Prasina.jpg, Egg mass Green shield bug (Palomena prasina) 4th instar nymph.jpg, 4th instar nymph Green shield bug (Palomena prasina) 5th instar nymph.jpg, 5th instar nymph Palomena prasina MHNT Nymph.jpg, Final-stage nymph Щитник зелёный древесный.jpg, Green shield bug. Microscope Lumam P-8

References

External links

* Southwood, T. R. E. and Leston, D. (1959
''Land and Water Bugs of the British Isles''
Frederick Warne & Co. *

species account a
British Bugs

ARKive page about the green shield bug
{{Taxonbar, from=Q844036 Nezarini Hemiptera of Europe Insects described in 1761 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus