hawthorn-shield-bug, a photo from Nottinghamshire, England

Photographer's Note

1st post after a few days away in the English lake district (Cumbria), some pictures to follow later.
This is a Hawthorn Shield Bug (Acanthosoma haemorrroidale). Seen here on a Forsythia leaf,having flown out of the front hedge of my mums house.
This is a sap sucking member of the Heteroptera family, the name of which means different wing, this is because the forewing is divided into 2 areas, the front half is hardened and coloured and the rear part is clear and flexable.They fold flat across the back giving rise to the common name of shield bug.this one is about 16mm / 1/2inch long.
They feed on sap from the berries of Hawthorn ( Crataegus), Oak (Quercus)leaves and Sorbus aria (Whitebeam), the hawthorn being its main food, because Hawthorn is the plant that makes up more than 75% of the English farm hedges because it is Stock/animal proof. They feed mainly on the sap from berries but when these are unavailable in the spring they suck sap from the young leaves.
There is no larvel form just eggs and then baby bugs which just get bigger. some of the other members of the family look after the eggs till they hatch,some even look after the babies for a while.
The picture was taken as it was getting dark so I used the flash to light it hence one or two highlights (not the effect of sharpening in photoshop)
Adjustments
Saturation +8 (and in green channel +5) lightness-4
brightness -3 contrast +3
sharpen edges and fade back to 75%
USM 79% X 1.9px radius X threshold 4
save to web 800px at 72dpi @ 195.5k

milloup, blu, Jeppe, mogens-j, PDP, Esox, Jax ha puntuado esta nota como útil.

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milloup (1829) 2004-07-19 16:56

Excellent capture of a type of shield bug I haven't seen yet. Good DOF keeping the entire beast within focus, good use of fill flash to light up also part of the underside. The green bits of him blend in admirably with the foliage, but the bright colours give him away ;-) If this is full frame, you might consider cropping a bit top and right.

blu (1429) 2004-07-19 17:19

nice close-up and good job on the different greens.

Jeppe (18654) 2004-07-19 17:23

Great shot of this bug, which I beleive to have seen around here as well - I was thinking about Lines first macro - but it was a Parent bug. Wonderful light and background you got on this shot - thanks Robert for the note as well.

mogens-j (56) 2004-07-19 17:24

Excellent capture robert and what a fine pose. DOF, composition and colours are spot on. I have a few shots of one too but it is not so red as yours more like dark chocolate. Could be the age - I do not know. Anyway you did a fine job here.

PDP (439) 2004-07-19 18:49

Great shot Rob, The colours are superb. And both antennae are in focus - I like it. I would have given it a '2' but the page has no marks buttons displayed! :-(

Esox (252) 2004-07-20 13:35

Great macro shot Robert!
Colors are wonderful and DOF efficient.
A beautiful bug whit an ugly name : Acanthosoma hemorrhoidale.
Don't ask me why this name! ;-)
Very good job.

cdewet (0) 2004-07-20 14:50

Robert, very nice, nice note too. We have similar pests, we call them "pampoen gogga" which means a pumpkin bug, and they pong when you kill them, So, when they are in the house, you try and get them out without touching, otherwise the pong clings in your nostrils for quite some time.
I like the diagonal and size here in the format.

Jax (239) 2004-07-25 15:03