The hunter and the hunted...
As one of nature's dramas plays itself out on a garden center counter, we learn that not all stink bugs are plant eaters. Some, like this fellow, have very different tastes...
A nice succulent cankerworm, anyone? Most stink bugs feast on plants, with some causing significant damage to cultivated crops, especially fruits. Upon investigation, we learn how to identify the predaceous from the plant eaters - when they're not actively bringing down their prey.
It's all in the shoulders - plant eaters have smooth, rounded shoulders, but predaceous stink bugs (Family Pentatomidae) have a spiny protrusion extending from each "shoulder" (shoulder is not a technical, anatomically-correct, insect term - but is descriptive). It looks like no one told the cankerworm "beware the thorny shoulders!" Actually, there couldn't be to a more deserving victim, than the destructive cankerworm!
And the dance of the gruesome twosome continues!UPDATE: According to my crack team of entomologists, the Spined Soldier Bug is another name by which you may be familiar with this bug - found him listed in the same family - Pentatomidae.
Photos ©CBI 2008
©Deb Lambert 2008
3 comments:
It's amazing how little universes of life are going on right before our eyes! It's nice to slow down sometimes and have a look.
Hi Deb! Thanks for the ID information on the stinkbug! We see those here, but I had no idea they were carniverous! ;-)
Anyway, I hope they don't attack my monarch and or black swallowtail caterpillars (and etc)!
How are you doing?
now that's cool stuff...tiderunner
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