A few Shieldbugs

Polly M pointed out some interesting little 'beetles' just hatching from their eggs last week, and on closer examination, these seemed to be the 'first instar' (or first life-cycle stage) of the Common Green Shieldbug. There were a quite a number of these little shieldbugs hatching together from their eggs on a Sweet Pea leaf. The following day they had dispersed leaving just the empty eggs.

As often seems to happen when one sees something, Andy M started noticing shieldbugs all over the place. Shortly afterwards he spotted an adult Common Green Shieldbug, and a Red-legged Shieldbug in the garden, and a splendidly-coloured Hairy Shieldbug adult along the ORC.

The excellent 'British Bugs' website was extremely useful in identifying these True Bugs, and a very good source of information about these interesting creatures.
https://www.britishbugs.org.uk/index.html

First instar Common Green Shieldbug - just hatched ..

.. and their empty egg-cases the next morning

Adult Common Green Shieldbug

Adult Common Green Shieldbug

Adult Common Green Shieldbug

Adult Red-legged Shieldbug

Adult Hairy Shieldbug on the flowers of Ladies Bedstraw

Adult Hairy Shieldbug