I really enjoy the detail you capture in your observations/images. I have just learned about stadium and stage in regard nymphs thanks to this posting - instar I was aware of. Thank you!
Posted 6 years ago
Hi Ruth and thanks for the flowers :o) The terms "instar" and "stadium" are exchangeable I think. Our national True Bug champion (Berend Aukema) doesn't seem to like the term "instar" much, so I've taken to using stadium a tad more, but overall people indicate the same thing with it. In most true bugs (I'm sure there are some exceptions), after hatching from the eggs into a 1st stadium/instar nymph (some would call it a larva, but that's a different language-issue) the little ones need to moult five more times before they are full grown, so the fourth stadium you see here is the one before the last nymphal stadium and two moults away from adulthood (imago) with fully developed wings. If you'll look at a 5th stadium/instar nymph/larva of the same species you'll see that the wing-capsules are clearly longer on that last stadium:
Posted 6 years ago, modified 6 years ago
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