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[![Image from
yotsuba](https://i.stack.imgur.com/O8sHg.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/O8sHg.jpg)

Context: From Yotsuba&, they went gathering chestnuts and one of them had a
bug in it so they threw it away. But here the young girl is eating from the
rest and her sister is saying that there were still bugs in them that morning.

My question comes from the use of てた in this context. Why is this used instead
of the past construct. I can understand it, at least form the English point of
view, why it would work if it were paired with まだ or また, and think that the も,
serves a similar purpose in this context, i.e. They were coming out this
morning _as well_.

  * Are there certain combinations come together, or imply one another ?
  * What difference, if any, is there between the た and てた conjugations ?
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past て-form
Differences between た/てた
Not sure but I think きてた in the picture is short for きていた（past form of きている）.
If きた simply means came, きてた means something more like a continuous action.

Of course this is just my opinion. You could read more on the subject about
～て／～ている form.
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虫出てきてた is short for 虫(が)出てきていた.

  * 出て: The te-form of 出る
  * きて: The te-form of くる (来る)
  * いた: The past-form (aka ta-form) of いる (居る)

くる and いる here are both [subsidiary
verbs](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/18952/5010). くる denotes actions
that is physically or psychologically moving toward you. See [Difference
between -ていく and -てくる](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/676/5010). いる
denotes the action is in progress.

So the literal translation would be "Speaking of those chestnuts, bugs were
coming out (toward us) this morning, too."

The difference between 出てきた and 出てきて(い)た is simply the difference between
"bugs came out" and "bugs were coming out." Unlike instant actions like
ドアから歩いて出る, this 出てくる is an action that may take hours. She witnessed bugs
which are in the middle of crawling out from the chestnuts.

* * *

**EDIT** : @goldbrick pointed out that this ていた can also be understood as an
example of the _past perfect aspect_ (i.e., bugs had completed the action of
"coming out" and were creeping on the surface of a table, for example, when
she noticed them). For the details of this usage of いる, please see: [When is
Vている the continuation of action and when is it the continuation of
state?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/3122/5010) I think both
interpretations are possible. Where were the bugs found at the time of this
conversation?
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answer
> (2) その栗{くり}今朝{けさ}も虫{むし}出{で}てきたよ。  
>  (3) その栗{くり}今朝{けさ}も虫{むし}出{で}てきてたよ。

(2) When I saw the chestnuts, a bug just came out this morning, too.  
(3) When I saw the chestnuts, bugs were coming out this morning, too.  
[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/SFYJI.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/SFYJI.jpg)
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