Mirid bugs...

These little mirid bugs are extremely common on plants during the summer - especially on umbellifers - and there are numerous species. Fortunately the excellent British Bugs web site provides an excellent photographic guide that covers many of them.

This species is the very common Grypocoris stysi, which is often found on umbellifer flower heads, like the hogweed below.

I think this little green species, which turns up on many plants in our garden, is possibly the common green capsid Lygocoris pabulinus, but there are several rather similar small green capsid bugs so I could be wrong.

You can see the typical capsid proboscis here, which can penetrate plant tissues, the bodies of small insects and even human skin in some of the larger bug species, like water boatmen.

I thought this species, which took up residence on the dill plants in our garden, would be easy to identify because of that yellow chevron marking - but there are several similar species that are described as 'very variable' in their markings, so Liocoris tripustulatus is not much more than a guess at an identification.

You can find a picture of a more colourful species by clicking here.

Mirid bug

I found this beautifully marked plant bug, which I think is Miris striatus, in a hedgerow near the river Wear in Wolsingham.

This is a heteropteran plant bug, characterised by wings that are partly hardened and partly membranous. This one just scuttled away instead of flying when I disturbed it. 

Most heteropterans feed on plants but apparently this one is partly carnivorous, feeding on other small insects. 

The colouring varies quite a lot in this species - I think the intensity of colour in the blue tip to the membranous part of the wing varies depending on the angle of the lighting.