FLOWER BUG

also called Minute Pirate Bug, or Anthocorid Bug, any member of the insect family Anthocoridae (order Heteroptera), which numbers about 400 species. The flower bug is important because it feeds on aphids and aphid eggs, although several species suck human blood (e.g., the cosmopolitan Lectocoris campestris and the Sudanese Anthocoris kingi). These small insects (2 to 5 mm, or 0.08 to 0.2 inch) are black with white markings; they are usually found on flowers, under loose bark, or in leaf litter. Their eggs are deposited in plant tissue, and the adults pass the winter in trash piles. Flower bugs differ from most heteropterans because they have a well-defined embolium (a section of the wing). The insidious flower bug, Orius (Triphleps) insidiosus, is a common North American species that preys on the grape phylloxera and the chinch bug.