Green Shield Bug
Palomena prasina · True bugs
Shield bug nymph
Great Dixter, 8 June 2025
A young green shield bug balanced on the tip of a striped lily petal at Great Dixter in June, still short of the mottled bronze the adults turn toward autumn. It is the commonest shield bug of British hedges and gardens, feeding on the sap of almost any shrub.
True bugs like this feed by piercing plant tissue and drawing out the sap rather than chewing, which is the trait that defines the whole order. The "shield" is the shape, and the other name, stink bug, is the smell they release when handled - a warning to anything that has picked one up once.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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