Three spotted nettle bug
Liocoris tripustulatus
The three spotted nettle bug is a small brown plant bug with cream and yellow markings. It has a heart-shaped mark on its back and pale legs with black rings. It lives on stinging nettles, and nettles are its favourite food.
Lives in
Most of Europe, on nettles and other low plants
Length
4 to 5 mm (0.16 to 0.2 in)
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting people.
What does it eat?
Young and grown-up bugs feed on stinging nettles.
How big is it?
How long is it?
💅small enough to sit on your fingernail🍽️could run across a dinner table in 28 seconds
How big is Three spotted nettle bug compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A garden snail about 0.05 km/h (0.03 mph)
Three spotted nettle bug about 0.13 km/h (0.08 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
You can find grown-ups all year round.
2
In spring the bugs are darker, and a patch near the wing tip is bright orange-yellow.
3
The new summer bugs are paler, with weaker markings.
4
Its shins have short dark spines.
you asked
Most asked questions about Three spotted nettle bug
?What does the common nettle bug eat?
Stinging nettles, at every stage of its life.
?How big is the common nettle bug?
Only about 4 to 5 millimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Liocoris tripustulatus
- Named by
- Fabricius, 1781
- Group
- True bugs and cicadas
- Family
- Miridae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hemiptera > Miridae
- Lives on
- Europe
- Also known as
- Common nettle bug
Where the facts come from
- Liocoris tripustulatus (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 Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 3.0, 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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