Elasmucha grisea
| Parent bug | |
|---|---|
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| Elasmucha grisea with eggs | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hemiptera |
| Suborder: | Heteroptera |
| Superfamily: | Pentatomoidea |
| Family: | Acanthosomatidae |
| Genus: | Elasmucha |
| Species: | E. grisea |
| Binomial name | |
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Elasmucha grisea (Linnaeus, 1758) |
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Parent bugs belong to the family Acanthosomatidae (Hemiptera) - so-called shield bugs or stink bugs. and include the genus Elasmucha. Parent bugs possess methatoracic and abdominal glands, which discharge a foul smelling secretion. This secretion is used to deter potential enemies and is sometimes released when the bug is disturbed.
Like most shield bugs, parent bugs suck plant sap and require symbiotic bacteria for their digestion. They obtain symbionts at an early age: the mother covers her eggs with bacteria so that the larvae ingest them as they feed on the egg case. Both adults and larvae readily feed on developing seeds, and breeding individuals can be observed on host plants with many young catkins. However, they seem to avoid trees with a high predation risk.
The common name comes from the relatively rare insect behaviour of prolonged caring for eggs and juveniles, exhibited by females of this species. Predators, such as bugs, beetles, earwigs and ants, can eliminate all the offspring of the parent bug if there is no maternal care. The repertoire of female defensive behaviours includes wing fanning, body jerking, tilting towards the enemy and, finally, releasing of 'nasty’ odours from the scent glands,
After oviposition, the parent bug female stands over the egg batch and shields it throughout egg development. Predation appears to limit the clutch size in E. grisea. Experiments have shown that large females lay larger egg clutches than small females. However, when the clutch size was manipulated, small females protecting large clutches lost significantly more eggs than large females guarding small clutches or females in the control groups (guarding clutches of optimal size).
After hatching, larvae of the parent bug remain in a tight aggregation, feeding on their empty egg shells. When any larva tries to abandon the aggregation, the female tilts her body, stretches her antennae to reach the larva and pushes the larva back to the aggregation. During the second and third instar they move, for food, towards catkins then back to the leaf with the female in close attendance. The female keeps a lookout for the larvae constantly and manages them with touches of her antennae. Finally, larvae form smaller groups and disperse at the end of the third instar, at which point the female leaves them.
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Wikipedia