« Bumble-bee | Main | Sawflies »
Sunday
May242009

Grass Bug Nymphs

A couple of evenings ago I noticed lots of these small grey bugs on the long grass in the university grounds.  In some areas, every grass stem seemed to have at least one or two on it.  I thought that they were probably hemipteran bugs, and that the short, stubby, not yet fully formed wings suggested that they were nymphs (ie: juveniles).  However, it wasn't until today that I got any clear photos of them and was able to attempt identification.  Thanks to British Bugs I now think that they are either Leptopterna dolabrata (the meadow plant bug) or Leptopterna ferrugata, but I will probably have to wait until they grow up into adults before I can to decide between these two species.

This picture shows the proboscis which hemipteran bugs use to extract sap from their host plant:


Photos taken in Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2009-05-23 and 2009-05-24.

Reader Comments

There are no comments for this journal entry. To create a new comment, use the form below.

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
All HTML will be escaped. Hyperlinks will be created for URLs automatically.