Tag Archives: plant bug

The bug called Grypo

20 Wednesday Jun 2018

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180620 Grypocoris stysi (1)

On day 20 of #30DaysWild, I went looking for plant bugs – it is National Insect Week after all – and I found newly opened umbellifer flower heads fairly swarming with the unmistakeable plant bug, Grypocoris stysi. Look for them during June and July, mostly feasting on the pollen of umbellifer and nettle flowers, though they’re also quite partial to the occasional aphid. There are over 10,000 species of plant / leaf / grass bugs, but little Grypo’s distinctive markings mean it’s one that’s easy to identify.

Rocking the Rhodos

30 Tuesday Aug 2016

Posted by in insects, nature, parks, plants

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160830 Rhododendron leafhopper (2)

What dapper little critters these are, don’t you think? The fashionistas of the bug world in their pale-green orange-striped suits, with contrasting purple trim and coordinating pale yellow under-wear. No dull dark-grey pinstripes for these hoppers; they’re American immigrants and they’re happy to be noticed. It certainly makes them easy to identify, a huge bonus in the world of plant bugs!

160830 Rhododendron leafhopper (1)

Rhododendron leafhoppers (Graphocephala fennahi) were first introduced to Britain in the early 1900s and I was first introduced to them early last week, when walking a butterfly transect with a colleague, but I’ve been back twice to see them since then, just because they make me laugh. The ones in my pictures make their home in the rhododendron bushes in one small area of Cardiff’s Bute Park, and there are hundreds, if not thousands of them – so many, in fact, that you can actually hear the sproing as they flit from leaf to leaf. And, if you stand in front of the bushes, you’re in serious danger of straining your neck from watching them fly and spring back and forth. Yet another free entertainment package from Mother Nature (with a little voyeurism thrown in)!

Bugs in the meadows

21 Sunday Aug 2016

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Look closely at the wildflowers and grasses in a meadow during the summer months and you might be surprised at how much life is thriving below the casual gaze of human passers-by. If you live in Britain, Europe or North America (where these critters were accidentally introduced in the 1830s), one of the bugs you are quite likely to see is this aptly named Meadow plant bug (Leptopterna dolabrata).

It’s tiny, only about ⅓ inch (8mm) long, and rather well camouflaged amongst the plant stems and leaves. As you might expect from the name plant bug, it feeds on plants. In fact, it’s an expert sucker, using its stylet (piercing mouthpart) to inject into the plant stem an enzyme-rich saliva, which begins to break down the plant tissues even before the bug sucks out the resulting plant soup.

Leptopterna dolabrata is sexually dimorphic so the males and females have slightly different colouring, plus the males are fully winged whereas the females are usually only partly winged. You can see the differences in the mating pair shown above. And below is a plant bug nymph, probably one of their offspring – I say probably because many of the nymphs look alike so it’s difficult to tell exactly which species they are.

160820 Leptopterna sp nymph (5)

Get a gryp–o!

14 Thursday Jul 2016

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A Grypocoris (Lophyromiris) stysi that is – the bug formerly known as Calocoris (Grypocoris) stysi. Though it’s a relatively common bug and can be found throughout Britain, this little dude has no common name so I’ve taken to calling it Grypo – those Latin names are just too long-winded to get my tongue around and not so easy on the memory either.

160714 grypocoris stysi (1)

So, the Grypos are out in force at the moment. Their eggs hatch in May, they eat up large during June and July – mostly on nettles and umbellifers, though the odd snack of aphid also goes down a treat – and by the end of August they’re gone. They’re wee things, between 6 and 8mm long, so not always easy to spot but their distinctive patterning means they are, at least, easy to identify – not the case with many of Britain’s bug community.

Grypo is one of the myriad Miridae family, which includes more than 10,000 species of plant / leaf / grass bugs. As many members of Grypo’s extended family are stem-piercing sap-sucking plant pests, they frequently suffer from bad press. Rest assured, little Grypo is one of the good guys.