Stink Bug on Pumpkin: Mimetism

A stink bug trying to mimetize on the surface of a pumpkin is not related to Barcelona unless we recall that Halloween is coming and pumpkins are omnipresent in this magical time of the year. But let's face it the star of the picture is what I think is the nymph of a Southern Green stink bug or Chinche Verde in Spanish (scientific name: Nezara viridula (Linnaeus)). An amazing image of the same bug here: Nezara viridula nymph by Joaquin Portela. The peculiar name is due to the fact that when crashed or in case there are a lot of them together a foul smell can be felt. We can easily spot them on top of this smooth surface under the light of the afternoon sun because we know that such "lump" shouldn't be there but surely on first sight mimetism does the trick with birds or other predators. Now that I popped in the bug issue on today's post what better than a beautiful set of insect macros by Manuel M. Almeida (mmeida) at Flickr who also runs Imagina Fotolog

See also Insect Macros in my Barcelona Photography swicki or perform a specific search following my photography customized Google searchbox on the top right corner of the blog if you wish.