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Question on eggs and hatching (pics.letsfail.com)
submitted 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) by to c/entomology@mander.xyz
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Hi! Sorry, very new at the whole "bugs" thing, and I'm still learning. I spotted this the other day (not sure of the stink bug species, possibly Nezara viridula), promptly spent hours watching macro timelapses of stink bugs hatching, going from gooey babies to hard shelled nymphs...

Now to the question which has been bugging me: is there such a thing as "too late to hatch"? Can they "harden" inside the egg and just die there (maybe in the blackened eggs)?

Thanks!

Edit:

I found another nest of the same species and took it home. So: have a top view of the hatched eggs and some first instar nymphs while I'm at it!

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[–] 4 points 3 years ago (1 child)

When you see a few black stink bug eggs mixed in among the pale ones like this, it generally indicates a parasitoid wasp has laid an egg inside the bug egg, and the baby wasp has hatched and eaten the bug egg from the inside! So instead of a bug nymph emerging from the black eggs, you would get a wasp emerging. If you're a bug or moth (or most any insect really), you are not safe from parasitoids at any life stage - some wasps attack you in the egg stage, some the nymph/larval stage, and some the pupal stage. Unlike parasites which wanna keep you alive forever to continue to host them, parasitoids just wanna mooch off you a little while and then wanna kill and eat you to finish the job. You probably would hardly notice it if you saw one of the parasitoid wasps, as they can be just a couple millimetres long! There are some nice pics in this blog: https://bugtracks.wordpress.com/2011/08/21/stink-bug-egg-parasitoids/

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 3 years ago (1 child)

    Stellar explanation, thank you! Those wasps are absurdly cute for creatures born of baby murder, by the way. The link you gave is fantastic, too.

    As for "hardly noticing": macro photography fixes that problem, for better or worse (nothing like noticing a parasitic worm coming out of a cricket's butt while reviewing your pictures in full 4k :D ). I take photos of everything even mildly suspicious, just in case.

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