Resisting the Pied Piper: Colorful Defense Mechanisms in Insect Eggs, with a Focus on Stink Bugs (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae)

How can immobile life stages such as eggs protect themselves against physical and biological threats? One protective adaptation that has evolved to help them survive is egg coloration. In this thesis, I begin by reviewing the studies looking at adaptive insect egg coloration and distinguish what is known based on scientific evidence versus untested hypotheses. I then move on to testing whether the eggs of the Harlequin cabbage bug are chemically defended, in an attempt to link glucosinolate sequestration to possible aposematic egg coloration. I argue that the nymphs are not only chemically defended, but also use tonic immobility as an alternative antipredation strategy until sufficient compound sequestration is achieved. Finally, I assess the selective pressures behind the evolution of egg color polymorphism in the Spined soldier bug. I demonstrate that frequency-dependant predation is necessary to select for approximately equal frequencies of the two main morphs observed in nature.