Green Stink Bug

I wanted to get back to writing on my blog, so I decided to celebrate my Irish roots on this feast of St. Patrick with a blog post about an interesting green bug.  Yes...I can say bug today because I am going to talk to about an insect in the order Hemiptera,

I want to talk to you about the Green Stink Bug.  These little guys really do cause a stink, especially among the farmers who are trying to grow cotton.

These nice looking insects start out as tiny eggs clustered together on a leaf.  When the insects hatch they are ready for lunch!  They feed by sucking the juices out of the plant.  When this happens large bulges are formed on the plant.

They eat away on their host plant in order to have enough strength to shed their outer exoskeleton.  There will be multiple molts before taking on their adult form.  This would be considered an incomplete metamorphosis because there is not a pupa stage in this development.

 I know that they are not beneficial insects but they do a great job of camouflaging in their environment so I think they are interesting insects!