They grow up so fast

Just the other day I posted a bunch of photos of a young stink bug that was on the hyacinth bean that is growing on my deck railing. That bug is happy on that plant apparently, as it was still there a couple of days later.

Looks a bit different though, as it's gone through one more molt and now as a 5th instar it's just one more molt away from adulthood!

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It's actually not too surprising that I found it in the same approximate location as before, as I've found that juvenile insects don't seem to travel that much.

Mantises I find will often stay in that same location (if it's a good one) for weeks, which is kind of fun because it lets me go check on them every couple of days or so.

This one is quite content on the bean pods, and I have to admit I'm glad for that -- I love the purples that it adds to the photos!

This "guy" was not just resting here -- it was hungrily feeding on the hyacinth bean pod, but I just couldn't get the camera into position to see the mouthparts clearly.

You can see how this guy has changed since just a few days ago:

Then.

Now.

Beautiful!

I wonder if I can find the discarded shell?

I have a feeling that once it reaches adulthood it will fly away -- but I'll check around to see if I can find it here.

Even though it will have lost all of its markings and just be boring green, having photos of the adult seems important to me now.

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