Ben Caruthers shot this photograph at Wilson's Creek Battlefield. It was a bug in a meadow sitting on a plant so he immediately called it a meadow plant bug (MPB) which is its common name. A quick trip to INaturalist didn't hurt. It also answers to Leptopterna dolabrata (Miris dolabratus), but we will stick with MPB.
It is a native of the grasslands in almost all of Europe and east across Asia Minor to the Caspian Sea region. It was introduced to North America in the distant past where it has found a lot to love in our north central grasslands as well as southern Canada. It is considered a pest in the grass seed industry where it feeds on developing grass seeds, causing seed heads to shrivel and
prematurely whiten. They also will cut into the base of the grass plant to insert their eggs. When it comes to wheat:
"MPBs exude a sticky saliva as they feed, and according to one source, the residue of this saliva can break down wheat’s gluten midway through the bread-making process, turning a yeast dough into a runny mess." UWM.EDU
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| MPB Nymph - Charlie Eiseman |
As a "true bug" in the order Hemiptera, it goes through incomplete metamorphosis, the young resembling the adults although the wings only develop in the last of their five successive molts. You can see the early wings budding in this nymph and its grass stem acrobatics at this link.
MPB left some of its natural predators at home in the Old World but has lots of grassland predators and parasitoids here. It exudes a smelly defensive chemical from scent glands on their thorax when threatened. Fortunately Ben didn't snort it!
