Firebug Behaviour

[Andestine]

For most of every year my garden is full of firebugs (Pyrrhocoris apterus) and I love photographing them either rolling mallow seeds around, getting into trouble during their days' long mobile mating rituals, or clustering together in groups of all instars. But the other day I came across one that looked as if it was injured (or maybe undergoing some natural change, in which case please correct me).

I watched it for a while and another joined it. In my ignorance, my heart sank as I expected it to be attacked or otherwise dispatched. But the second firebug just snuggled up beside it and gently stroked the damaged parts with its antennae. After a while another bug arrived and did the same antennae-stroking thing without the snuggling, and then walked away. The gentle stroking went on for about fifteen minutes. No mating was attempted, and in the end the injured one quietly got up and walked off into the undergrowth.

As I know so little about bugs, I'd like to ask how they normally respond to injured comrades, and why they did so much antennae stroking over this one's body. And if it wasn't injured, what was going on?

I tried to find out without success, but I did come across an interesting abstract on firebug behaviour which I found quite surprising. I'm only just learning about bugs, so I'm not sure that I fully understand it, but the mention of recent interest in animal personalities, and particularly of bugs having distinct personalities, certainly got my attention

Individual behaviour in firebugs (Pyrrhocoris apterus) ? Proceedings B

I would be so grateful if someone could explain what was happening. Are bugs even aware when one of them is injured or diseased? And was what I saw a normal response?

Cheers,

Andestine

[Andestine]

P.S.
Sorry, I should have stated that I live in Guernsey. I'm wondering how many of you have seen this bug in England? This is an excerpt from La Société Guernesiaise website, though I believe that the bug has spread further north since this was published.

This insect has been known for over 150 years in Guernsey. However, for much of this time it appeared only sporadically. The population has increased greatly in the last decade and it is now one of the commonest bugs in the island...

In England this species is only regularly found on one small island, the Oarstone, off Torquay, though a population was found recently in Sussex.

They come from much warmer climes and seem to love the sun, from what I've observed, so will be well unimpressed with all the snow you're getting. Might slow their invasion down a bit, for a while, but they seem like fairly harmless beasties, though I emphasise 'seem'. .