Brownish-red, sometimes dark, crawling and sucking, feeding on sap from leaves and stems, blending in well, with shields on their back, hiding in plain sight.

This big brown bug is quiet and gentle, promising no real harm to you and your plant. The dock bug is often found on the dock plant, quietly socking sap.

While the dock bug is both a bug and an insect, not all insects are bugs.
A small creepy-crawly with or without wings, six segmented legs, a head, thorax, and abdomen, that is the classic insect ID. But you need a piercing and sucking mouth part to join the bug club of insects..

A spider can't even gain entry into an insect-only club, because it has eight legs onk only two body segments, easily spoted by the insect bouncer. Let alone being called a bug which is an inner circle in the insect world.

The Coreus marginatus is a true bug; it has a special mouthpart, resembling a drinking straw, used to pierce and suck plant fluids where it gets water, sugars, nutrients, vitamins, and other organic compounds.

In the plant world, they are like vampires with straws, literally sucking out the plant's blood as they sink their stylets down to the plant's phloem to get those sugars and nutrients.

This is the plant they were feeding on when i captured this pictures. Their reddish-brown hue helped them blend well with the plant's buds, serving as camouflage against birds.
Can you spot the duck bud in the picture above?

The life of this bug is in 3 main stages, from the time it is laid as an egg, it hatches into a nymph with poorly developed wings as depicted in the picture above. It will mult a couple of times. Its redish-brown delicate skin gradually hardens and darkens after multhing. And finally, it becomes an adult with strong wings and can fly.

Hiding under leaves, Its colours openly says, "I am not good for food". When threatened, it gives off a faul smell that would keep you away. But if you still insist, this bug simply flies off.

Yes the dock leaf bug is a pest, but its not a terrible pest, it only becomes a problem if hou are having an infestation, their rate of transmitting diseases is low but if you have an army of this bugs sucking the life out of a plant. That will be a problem.

I am inviting @nspidos, @rubee2as1 @dequeen and @bossj23

Media Credit

Composer	@manuelhooks
Captured with	Galaxy-A15
Entry type	Freelance
Date	Saturday. 26th January.
	(@) 2026