Black Bug Nymph with Jumping Legs

2015 November 18

Sam spotted this crawling on a wall in the house on July 5, 2015. She thought it was a tick at first, since it was about the size of an unengorged deer tick. Then, on the second look, we thought it was a beetle. And then, finally, after getting a picture that could be magnified, we saw that it was, in fact, some kind of True Bug, and not a beetle at all.

It has a long pair of jumping legs, and so it is evidently able to hop (although it didn’t hop while I was photographing it). It also has protruding “bug eyes”, and since the wings aren’t fully developed it looks like a nymph just before its final molt to become an adult.

This is most likely a nearly-grown nymph of one of the two species of Orthocephalus in North America. Both of which are accidental introductions from Europe.

They don’t appear to be considered to be pests, probably because their food plants are not overlapping much with crops. This is the first one I can remember seeing, so they probably aren’t too terribly common here yet, although given that they are not native, that could change in a hurry.

2 Responses
  1. August 14, 2020

    this thing is in my room rn and it’s hiding so i have to idea where it is

  2. rose permalink
    May 29, 2021

    how do i kill this bug or get rid of it it is driving me crazy it is hiding and jumping everywhere

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