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Sticker of Insidious flower bug
Bug card No. 2363 of 4,939

Insidious flower bug

Orius insidiosus
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsTrue bugs and cicadasGardens and meadows6 legs

The insidious flower bug is a tiny black bug with white patches on its wings, only about 3 millimetres long. It is a fierce little hunter that eats pests on farm crops. Farmers even raise lots of them to protect their plants.

Lives in
North, Central and South America and the Caribbean, on crops and fruit trees
Length
3 mm (0.12 in)
Top speed
about 0.1 km/h (0.06 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Can bite
It can sometimes bite people. The bite hurts quite a lot for such a tiny bug, but it is not harmful.
What does it eat?
It eats mites, thrips, aphids, insect eggs and tiny caterpillars. It sometimes eats pollen and plant juice too.
For real!Photo of Insidious flower bug
Picture by Orius_insidiosus_from_USDA_2.jpg : Photo by Jack Dykinga (uploaded by -- gian_d 22:03, 15 March 2008 (UTC)) derivative work: Anna Frodesiak ( talk ). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Insidious flower bug about 3 mm long (0.12 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)
small enough to sit on your fingernailcould run across a dinner table in 36 seconds

How big is Insidious flower bug compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It grabs its prey with its front legs and pokes its long beak in to suck it empty.

2

The mother lays her eggs inside plant leaves and stems.

3

Its babies are wingless and shaped like teardrops, yellow-orange to brown.

4

It takes at least 20 days to grow from egg to adult.

you asked

Most asked questions about Insidious flower bug

?Does the insidious flower bug bite?

Sometimes. The bite is surprisingly painful for its size, but it is not harmful.

?Why do farmers like the insidious flower bug?

It eats pests like thrips, mites and aphids, so it protects crops.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Orius insidiosus
Group
True bugs and cicadas
Family
Anthocoridae
Classification
Insecta > Hemiptera > Anthocoridae
Lives on
North America, South America

Where the facts come from

  1. Orius insidiosus (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 Orius_insidiosus_from_USDA_2.jpg : Photo by Jack Dykinga (uploaded by -- gian_d 22:03, 15 March 2008 (UTC)) derivative work: Anna Frodesiak ( talk ). Public domain, 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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