Potato mirid
Closterotomus norwegicus
The potato mirid is a small plant bug. When it is young it is green, and as a grown-up it turns reddish brown. It sucks juice from plants and likes flowers, buds and unripe fruit best.
Lives in
Europe and across Asia to Siberia, and brought to North America, in fields, meadows and gardens
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. It only drinks plant juice.
What does it eat?
It sucks juice from nettles, clover, potatoes, carrots, chrysanthemums and many other plants.
How fast is it?
A garden snail about 0.05 km/h (0.03 mph)
Potato mirid about 0.2 km/h (0.12 mph)
A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
In northern Britain the grown-ups are much darker, almost brownish black.
2
It has two little spots on the shield behind its head.
3
People accidentally brought it to North America.
4
In 1997 scientists moved it from the genus Calocoris to its new name.
you asked
Most asked questions about Potato mirid
?What does the potato mirid eat?
It sucks juice from plants, especially from flowers, buds and unripe fruit.
?Is the potato mirid harmful?
Not to people. It can damage crops like potatoes and carrots.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Closterotomus norwegicus
- Group
- True bugs and cicadas
- Family
- Miridae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hemiptera > Miridae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, North America
- Also known as
- Potato capsid
Where the facts come from
- Closterotomus norvegicus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Didier Descouens. 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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