Two late winter/early spring invertebrates

This little crab spider was lurking amongst a bunch of ripening ivy berries. When I disturbed it, the spider quickly disappeared amongst the berries. I posted this picture on Twitter a couple of weeks ago and @ivysuckle kindly identified it for me, as a running crab spider in the genus Philodromus

 There's a shield bug nymph crawling over this lunar landscape of apothecia of the lichen Xanthoria parietina. On Twitter, it was kindly identified for me by @AlanM24217579 as a second instar nymph of the forest bug aka red-legged shieldbug Pentatoma rufipes, apparently the only shieldbug species that overwinters in the nymphal stage.

Hairy shieldbug Dolycoris baccarum and green shieldbug Palomina prasina

Last May, for the first time, I found a single hairy shieldbug Dolycoris baccarum in the garden here in Durham, which was notable because the guide that I used to identify it mentioned that this species was not very common north of East Anglia. Today I found many more, mostly on Honesty Lunaria annua, which is flowering in the garden now.

It may be that this of one of several insect species that are extending their range northwards, due to climate change.

One of the key identification features, apart from those smart black and white antennae, is that this species is covered with a scattering of pale brown hairs, which you can see in this photo. 

This individual is performing some essential maintenance on its rostrum, the highly specialised feeding tube, somewhat like a hypodermic syringe, that it uses for sucking sap from plants.

They are breeding here, so it looks as though I may now have a permanent garden population of these sap-sucking insects, which I welcome: they have a fascinating life cycle and add to the garden's biodiversity.

This is the second shield bug species that has turned up in the garden in the last week.

A few days ago this green shieldbug Palomina prasina, hard to spot with its cryptic coloration, turned up in a lavender bush. It has been an established member of the garden insect fauna and is partial to feeding on ripe raspberries in the summer.

Birch Shield Bug

Today's Guardian Country Diary is about this delightful family of birch shield bugs that I found feeding on birch seed catkins, beside a footpath along the river Tyne at Wylam.

This is a nymph, two moults away from becoming an adult, with the most amazing 'smiley face' markings on its abdomen - an insect emoticon.

And here it is feeding alongside its mother, on a birch seed catkin.

Shieldbug nymph

We found this red-legged shieldbug Pentatoma rufipes nymph at Alston yesterday. It will go through further moults before it becomes a winged adult.

Here it is flipped over onto its back, when you can see the rostrum - the long, articulated mouthparts that pierce plant tissues like a hypodermic syringe.

Almost as soon as I righted it the shieldbug shuffled over to a leaf vein, pierced it with the tip of its rostrum and began feeding.

For more on shield bugs, click here

Gorse Shieldbug

Found this little gorse shieldbug Piezodorus lituratus  on the broom bushes beside the river Tyne at Wylam yesterday.

From this angle the articulated rostrum, used for puncturing plant stems and sucking out plant juices, is clearly visible, along with the distinctive row of spiracles along the edge of the abdomen.

Click here for pictures of another species, the red-legged shieldbug

Red-legged Shieldbug

This red-legged shieldbug Pentatoma rufipes was sunning itself on a leaf in a field full of ripening wheat in Durham this morning. Wonderfully armoured insects, aren't they?