Nettle Groundbug - Heterogaster urticae
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Species Description
Fairly common and widespread throughout the South and spreading North. Habitat includes: Places with Nettles such as gardens, parks, allotments, churchyards, woodland, scrub, hedgerows, wasteland, roadside verges, railway banks etc. Seen: All year round. Length: 6 - 7 mm. Life story: Adults overwinter, then emerge to mate the following spring, during which the sexes can remain coupled together for several days. Females lay on Common Nettle. The new generation is complete from late summer onwards.
ID: Alternate dark and light markings on the legs and connexivum; the tibiae have three dark bands. The head and pronotum are covered in long erect hairs.
compared to the much rarer species (Heterogaster artemisiae) which is:
Smaller and lacks long hairs on the head and pronotum. The tibiae have a dark ring at the base and the antennae are largely pale, particularly the 2nd segment. Finall instar nymphs have a distinctive white band across the posterior margin of the pronotum.
Lygaeidae:
Heterogaster
Nettle Groundbug (Heterogaster urticae) //
Not:
Rhopalidae:
- Stictopleurus abutilon -
- Stictopleurus crassicornis -
- Stictopleurus pictus x
- Stictopleurus punctatonervosus -