Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Sunday, April 12, 2015

Sunday Science Blog



Here is the "Picasso Bug:"


When I first looked at the images, I thought they had been photo shopped.  Look at those designs and colors.  But they're not photo shopped; this is nature in all its glory.













Habitat: from South Africa, Ethiopia to Cameroon 

Apparently Picasso used other materials besides canvas to do his work: this is a Picasso Bug which is a species of Shield-backed Bug (Sphaerocoris annulus) and its ornate exterior looks as if it had been painted by the master artist himself. 

 According to the tumblr blog rhamphotheca, “These beautifully patterned true bugs (order Hemiptera, family Scutelleridae) are found throughout much of sub-saharan and northeastern Africa. They feed on the nectar and internal juices of a wide variety of plants with their sucking and piercing proboscis (straw like mouth part). Eggs are deposited on the under sides of leaves. The young nymphs spend most of their time in flowers feeding, and they take a little under 2 months to molt and grow into adults (when they will become more generalized feeders).”



6 comments:

Jerry Critter said...

Looks like a case of Nature imitating Art.

BB-Idaho said...

An Easter Egg bug?

Les Carpenter said...

A painted Lady Bug.

Shaw Kenawe said...

An Easter Egg bug? Looks like it to me.

Jerry, I'm fairly certain we humans are the ones who imitate Nature.

Shaw Kenawe said...

RN, there're also painted lady butterflies.

Les Carpenter said...

:-) Beauty in nature is a wondrous thing to behold indeed.