Slender Rice Bug

Description:

Hemiptera; Coreidae; Cletus trigonus Thunberg, 1783. I was very pleased to have an opportunity to photograph this pair of Slender Rice Bugs, but almost decided not to publish this spotting. Whether making some notes for my own personal use or just showing my pictures to someone else, what do you think is the most important point I always mention ? Yes, I'm sure you got it, the 3 white spots on the bag of the bug ! I always mention these spots as a good identifier for this species. The reason that I hesitated before uploading these pictures is that each of the bugs shown here has an extra white mark on its back. This is, of course, just some kind of detritus, possibly clumps of pollen, but the "extra white spots" might cause confusion to a complete novice. However, I decided to go ahead and publish this spotting for the reason that one must expect to meet such little problems in nature.

Habitat:

I spotted this copulating couple on the leaf of a Red Cockscomb (Celosia argentea) locally known as Palong-manok in our backyard. I had just taken some photos of a Hawk Moth on the stem of this plant when I noticed the mating bugs. The biodiversity here in Philippines is so rich that it is a common occurrence to find multiple species on a single plant.