The Four-Lined Plant Bug

Now, this is a bug with 80s street cred…

Check out those neon colors!

I was following a bumblebee around my Salvia yesterday when this brightly colored insect caught my eye… and I have to say I am questioning my photographer/scientist observation skills at this moment because I did a little googling and find it’s one of the most common plant bugs in the U.S..

How in the world have I never noticed this insect before??  I mean it’s small… but it certainly is eye-catching!

Here is a link to more information from the Missouri Botanical Garden.

And here’s a fact sheet from The Ohio State University.

So – I’ve become a bit obsessed as of late with studying the things I’m finding in my garden.  I’ve made it a personal mission to learn what is there including both insects and plants.  Last spring I was getting ready to pull out some thistle as I had for years before and stopped for a moment and really looked at the plant.  The flowers were beautiful and it was clear I had at least 2 different types.  I thought as a photographer it would be really interesting to attempt to get beautiful images of the plant while as a biologist I wanted to really study the plant – down to the interesting adaptations and structures.  So, I thought – why not do a photographic study of each thing I encounter?  I did take a slew of pictures of that first thistle (which I haven’t yet posted) and then winter came and the camera sat idle.  Now it’s spring and I can get out there enough!

So – with that spirit I set out to see how many different ways I could photograph this brightly colored insect.

I like this image that shows the sucking mouthparts:

And of course I had to get a couple face-to-face:

 

 

This may be why I’ve never spotted them before… they like to hide on the underside of the leaves:

As a matter of fact… I took this shot and didn’t realize until I was processing it large on the computer that if you look over to the right side of the frame there is one hiding behind the leaf there – see its antenna sticking out?

and again in this shot too…

These insects are considered pests by many perennial gardeners due to the damage they can cause to leaves.  The brown spots on these images are likely caused by these little bugs.

This image shows the characteristic circular brown spots described in the fact sheets.

I attempted to get a close up of this plant bug with a ruler but only got it as far as a clear container before it wisely flew away…

Again… check out that sucking mouthpart and I can’t get over that bright orange underside… how did I never see this before?

So – I was excited to learn something new yesterday.

One last picture and a question.  The websites all say these bugs are yellow with black stripes.  My daughters look at the images and insect and say it’s yellow… I see green – fluorescent, neon green… Is it because I’m a child of the 80s??  lol… Is it another “What color is this dress?” dilemma?  Is it yellow or green?  I guess we could settle on a yellow-green.  Break out the crayola box… I’m sure there’s a shade of yellow-green or green-yellow we could match.  At any rate it’s a vibrant and fun insect to see – even if it is eating my perennials…