Shield Bugs on Common Buckeye

Shield Bugs on Buckeye
Riparian Buffer, McDowell Creek
Creek Field Prairie Restoration
April 15, 2019

 We have many Western Buckeye trees along McDowell Creek, on the edge of our Creek Field prairie restoration.  This spring, every cluster of Buckeye buds had a Shield Bug on it!   The wild plums, the Golden Currants, and the choke cherries were also budding, but no Shields for them!  This year these bugs were Buckeye lovers.   

Nice Shield!

Shield Bugs are also called "Stink Bugs"--but what an insulting name.  I didn't notice an aroma--the spring air was sweet all around--but I did notice their impressive "armor."  "Shield"--a much nicer name.    Their family is Pentatomidae, a division of True Bugs.  

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Buckeye Bistro--a great place to meet someone!   More Shield Bugs may be arriving soon....

Next year--will we see Shield Bugs on Buckeye again?  Or will any tree or wildflower do?  Why are they just on Buckeye this year?

Bugguide.net tells me spring is when Shield Bugs hatch and form larval aggregations.   Yet here on April 15, they were already into their adult forms and adult behavior.   So did these adults overwinter on Western Buckeyes?  Or were they early hatching eggs just a few weeks before?