By Warren Dick
To me, the Picasso Bug is the most beautiful little bug in the world, measuring no bigger than your little finger nail. They look as if they have been individually hand painted by Mr Picasso himself.
In fact I have often been asked, “what software do you use to paint those beautiful colours on that bug?” to which I answer, “It is God who paints them, I am not that creative.”
The Picasso Bug is a member of the Shield Backed Bug family, meaning that unlike most other bugs and beetles, their carapace (Shell) that covers the wings is in
one piece. This makes the Picasso Bug rather reluctant to want to fly, however they can and do fly very well.?
While they are known to feed on a variety of different plants, I only seem to find them on one specific flowering plant inside the Kenneth Stainbank Nature Reserve, where they seen to feed on the plants seeds.
One would think that it would be quite easy to spot one of these beautiful little bugs with all those beautiful colours, but believe me, those colours just help them to blend into their chosen surroundings of dying flowers. Just like most bugs that have bright colours, the Picasso bugs colours serve as a warning, “Bother me at your own risk!” When threatened the Picasso bug can let off a vile smelling substance, the bug itself is also poisonous to eat.
All insects go through a process on Metamorphosis, but what most folks do not know is that there are two different types of Metamorphosis, complete and incomplete. A classic example of complete metamorphosis is the butterfly, it goes through completely different looking stages, from egg, to caterpillar to pupae and then to butterfly. But a lot of bugs and other insects go through what is known as incomplete metamorphosis, a good example of this is the Picasso Bug.
They start out life as an egg, but once hatched they are bugs and stay bugs, while their colour may change each time they molt their exoskeleton and they get wings when they are adults, their basic shape does not change throughout their lives.
I hope that this has been informative and that it inspires you to go out into your own garden to look for and appreciate the small things
