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Various bugs are found on our plants, some are beneficial to us, others less so. Recently we found some "true bugs" on raspberry plants. I put two in a bug-collecting box to identify. They were evidently unhappy with this treatment and, when the box was opened later, I got a severe dose of a "stink" so powerful that I developed a nauseous headache and spent the next day in bed! My sense of smell has only just recovered. I think they were various instars of Dock Bug, Coreus marginatus. They seem to have acquired a taste for our soft fruit, although this species normally feeds on docks and sorrels, which are weeds, and they belong to the "Squash Bug" family, which feed on marrows and squashes. The bug is closely related to the "Stink Bugs" and has the same powerful defence system - it leaks a powerful cyanide-based fluid with a very bad smell (and taste) tainting the fruit. Here are some photos I took - the young "instar" is on a raspberry; the older, larger one is a final instar. The species has four flightless instar stages before adulthood. |
 (Photo, author)  (Photo, author) |
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Like all Shieldbugs the mother cares for the eggs and the young ones. Not many insects show parenting skills, but many of the Heteroptera order do so and one species is even named the "Parent Bug". Not all these bugs are pests: this Spined Shieldbug, Picromerus bidens, is carnivorous and feeds on caterpillars and aphids. |
 (Photo, Bresson, T.) |