First Insect

Last week I found my first outdoor insect of the year. This Tarnished Plant Bug (Lygus lineolaris) was crawling on the foundation of my home. It was active on a day when the temperature was in the low 40s, which surprised me since I had not seen insects out on the days when it was substantially warmer than that. This species is a plant bug (family Miridae), a type of true bug that feeds on plants. This species overwinters as an adult, and the data for this species on BugGuide suggests that it is active for most of the year, though somewhat less so in the winter.