Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Stinkbug Defense: It works


Members of the insect order Hemiptera, family Pentatomidae, also known as Stinkbugs, will, in defense, squirt out a liquid if disturbed. For some species, this liquid is foul smelling. For others it is foul tasting.
Today I took Beatrice for a walk to Sacajawea Park at the end of our street to take a look at the wild blackberries that are growing there. They've been very green for awhile, but the ones in our backyard turned dark, so I thought that maybe the ones down the street would be dark as well. They are all still green, but there was one that was dark, so I plucked it off and threw it in my mouth. I immediately sensed that something was bitter, then hot, then wrong. I also sensed there was something extra in my mouth, so I spit it out and saw a small green brown pentatomid wriggling upside down in the dirt by my feet. I also spit out the blackberry. This wasn't surprising so much because I had found one a few days earlier on the same plant, on another ripe blackberry. I looked at some of the other blackberries and sure enough, there were two pairs mating and one watching them, perhaps waiting his turn. Apparently they love blackberries.

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