Hawthorn Shieldbug

This adult Hawthorn Shieldbug was found overwintering in February 2024.

Species introduction

At a glance
Latin name: 
Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale
Family: 
Stink Bugs
Family Latin name: 
PENTATOMIDAE
Category: 
Insects other

Species description

Species description

These shield bugs are common and widespread, adults bugs being adapted to eating the haws of Hawthorn trees. They are small bugs, approaching 1.5 centimetres in length. They overwinter as adults and mate in the spring. As with all bugs, they develop in stages, starting as nymphs, developing through a series of 'instar' stages, each time growing in size until they appear in their final adult form. Immature hawthorn shieldbugs don't show the pointed shoulders and triangular-patterned red-brown wings that are notable features of adult Hawthorn Shieldbugs.

Species photographs

Larger photograph(s) (click to magnify)

Details

Species family information

Most members of this family are plant feeders, and the cemetery is therefore very good habitat for them. The family name comes from the appearance of a five-sided body.

Category information

Centipedes, millipedes, and their kin are collectively called myriapods. Centipedes are carnivores, and have one pair of jointed legs per body segment, which never have 100 segments, but vary from 30 to 354. Millipedes have two pairs of jointed legs per body segment, up to 333 in number, and mostly feed on decaying plant material. Myriapods are arthropods and share a common ancestor with the crustacea, that includes insects, which in turn share a common ancestor with the arachnids. Arthropods have an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired, jointed appendages. They have highly developed sense organs. 84% of all species on the Earth are arthropods. Crustacea generally have two pairs of appendages (antennules and antennae) in front of the mouth and paired appendages near the mouth that function as jaws. They occupy a wide range of habitats, and many are aquatic, although the largest group in terms of number of species, the insects, are mainly terrestrial. Woodlice are common crustaceans in gardens.

Earthworms are annelids, evolving on a separate lineage to the arthropods, but they share a common ancestor with the molluscs. The Annelida is a large group of segmented worms, also called ring worms. Molluscs are a large, diverse group of invertebrates, which have unsegmented bodies enclosed within calcareous shells, and are represented in gardens mainly by terrestrial gastropods such as snails and slugs. Other molluscs, particularly the bivalves and cephalopods, are aquatic. Representatives of all these groups are found in the cemetery.