Trivial plant bug

Closterotomus trivialis · Order: Hemiptera · Family: Miridae

Damages trees, gardens or crops. It damages olive and citrus crops.

Source: Wikipedia

Trivial plant bug
Photo: Benjamin ZELVELDER, CC BY

Adults are 6.6 to 7.9 mm long and females are yellow-green while males can be red-black, with distinctive black spots on the pronotum.

Source: Wikipedia

Size

Adults measure about 6.6 to 7.9 mm (0.26 to 0.31 in) in length.

Source: Wikipedia

Life cycle

The species has one generation per year, overwinters as eggs in bark cracks, and females lay eggs at the end of spring.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it comes from

Its native range includes Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain and the former Yugoslavia.

Source: Wikipedia

More photos

Trivial plant bug photo 2
Photo: oliverc29, CC BY
Trivial plant bug photo 3
Photo: iNaturalist user, CC0
Trivial plant bug photo 4
Photo: Michel Langeveld, CC BY
Trivial plant bug photo 5
Photo: Michel Langeveld, CC BY

Questions people ask

How big is the trivial plant bug?

Adults are about 6.6 to 7.9 mm long.

Source: Wikipedia

How can I recognize this bug?

Females are yellow-green, males may be red-black, and the pronotum has two central and two side black spots.

Source: Wikipedia

Same family (Miridae)

North American Tarnished Plant BugNorth American Tarnished Plant BugLygus lineolarisDamages trees, gardens or cropsRed-spotted Plant BugRed-spotted Plant BugDeraeocoris ruberAlfalfa Plant BugAlfalfa Plant BugAdelphocoris lineolatusDamages trees, gardens or cropsMeadow Plant BugMeadow Plant BugLeptopterna dolabrataDamages trees, gardens or cropsFour-lined Plant BugFour-lined Plant BugPoecilocapsus lineatusDamages trees, gardens or cropsLygus pratensisLygus pratensisLygus pratensisDamages trees, gardens or crops

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closterotomus_trivialis

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-24 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

Every fact on Bug FAQ comes from a named source (university extension sites, government agencies, GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia). The source is linked next to each section. If we have no source for something, we leave it out.