Jade Stinkbug
We’ve had a couple of stinkbug photos on the site now, but none quite so beautiful as this one sent in by reader Chris Sanner. I am pretty sure this is a jade stinkbug, Banasa euchlora. Chris took this photo in northern Virginia around Thanksgiving of this year. Adult jade stinkbugs overwinter, and if you search the web you’ll see most human interaction with them is in the winter when they come in to get warm.
These little critters are usually found on or near Red Cedar, which is the same color of green with the same color of waxy white specks. The crypsis, or camouflage, is quite astonishing, as you can see from this photo taken by Patrick Coin.
I don’t know if they eat the red cedar or just live on it; all I could find out was that the cedar is their “host plant”. I did find out, however, that their particular mixture of defensive aldehydes smells like “armpit and gasoline“, according to gomichan over on LiveJournal.
I love this picture. I flipped it and cropped it differently (to provide a uniform background). The result is a pretty decent desktop wallpaper. As always, ping me if you want it in a resolution other than 1280×960.
