Tarnished Plant Bugs

Tarnished Plant Bug (Lygus lineolaris) 

This may be the best shot I have ever gotten of a tarnished plant bug (or TPB as entomologists shorthand it). It was on a daylily, which I steadied against the wind with my hand. 

These are true bugs, a real name, in the order Hemiptera. And they are a truly serious threat to food crops in North America. The problem, I read, is that they slowly become impervious to all methods, so far, of killing them, be it chemical pesticides or other means. Scientists are sequencing its DNA to forge more tools against them.

True bugs have piercing and sucking mouthparts, which you can clearly see here. In fact, there is a drop of the lily's juice dripping off of the bug's "beak." Whenever I gaze at this photo, I can imagine a great sci-fi monster movie being made with blood dripping off the beak. 

To me, they are a pretty, tiny, bug that pops up all over in the summer. In a non-agricultural habitat they seem to be under control and are no problem.  

_/\_/\_