Stink bugs or shield bugs are more than 4,700 species that, when disturbed, explains UWM’s The Bug Lady “release what Kaufman and Eaton, in the Field Guide to Insects of North America, call ‘aromatic compounds sure to repel all but the most desperate predators.'”
Some are considered pests, damaging plants and eating crops. Others are beneficial, keeping numbers of aphids, moths, and other insects in check.
If these are Brown Marmorated Stink Bug nymphs, the species feeds on fruit, “but also on leaves, stems, petioles, flowers, and seeds. Damage typically confined to fruiting structures,” BugGuide.net explains.
In the macro video above, a group of tiny hatching eggs is filmed up close. “Can you see their red eyes?” Another Perspective observes these tiny nymphs, as well as one of their predators, the samurai wasp.
Watch more nymph, bug, and insect videos, including:
• Front-flipping psyllids in slow-motion
• A ladybug life cycle time lapse
• Jewel bugs and beetles take off in slow motion
• Watching a woodlouse flip over
• Peru’s rare Black Beauty Stick Insect
• Look Up! The Billion-Bug Highway You Can’t See
• A critically endangered Lord Howe Island Stick Insect hatching
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