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Sticker of Common nettle flower bug
Bug card No. 1105 of 4,939

Common nettle flower bug

Plagiognathus arbustorum
Eats: PlantsTrue bugs and cicadasGardens and meadows6 legs

The common nettle flower bug is a tiny plant bug, only about 4 millimetres long. It can be almost black or pale olive green. It likes to suck juice from buds, flowers and young fruits.

Lives in
North America, most of Europe and east to Siberia and Central Asia
Length
3.6 to 4.5 mm (0.14 to 0.18 in)
Top speed
about 0.12 km/h (0.07 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people.
What does it eat?
It sucks juice from the buds, flowers and young fruits of many plants, especially nettles. Now and then it also eats aphids or sweet honeydew.
For real!Photo of Common nettle flower bug
Picture by Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Common nettle flower bug about 4.5 mm long (0.18 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)
small enough to sit on your fingernailcould run across a dinner table in 30 seconds

How big is Common nettle flower bug compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It is very common and eats from lots of different plants.

2

In the Alps it lives more than 2000 metres up.

3

Its babies are green with black marks on their legs.

4

The adults can be found from July to October.

you asked

Most asked questions about Common nettle flower bug

?What does the common nettle flower bug eat?

It sucks juice from buds, flowers and young fruits, especially of nettles.

?How big is the common nettle flower bug?

It is only about 3.6 to 4.5 millimetres long.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Plagiognathus arbustorum
Group
True bugs and cicadas
Family
Miridae
Classification
Insecta > Hemiptera > Miridae
Lives on
North America, Europe, Asia

Where the facts come from

  1. Plagiognathus arbustorum (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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