Diet

• Adults and nymphs: Primarily seed feeders, using their piercing-sucking mouthparts to extract nutrients from seeds.

• It is particularly associated with moist and wet habitats where suitable seed-producing plants occur. In Connecticut, it has been collected feeding on seeds of sedges (Carex spp.) and bulrushes (Scirpus spp.).

• Its feeding habits are therefore somewhat different from those of many dry-habitat seed bugs in the same family.

Range

• Neopamera albocincta is a dirt-coloured seed bug in the family Rhyparochromidae, subfamily Rhyparochrominae, tribe Myodochini.

• It has a remarkably broad distribution extending from the southern and eastern United States through Mexico and Central America, the Caribbean and into South America.

Habitat

• Strongly associated with moist to wet environments, unlike the closely related Neopamera bilobata, which is more characteristic of drier, disturbed habitats.

• Look for it around wetlands, marshes, streams, ponds and damp grasslands, particularly where sedges and other seed-producing wetland plants are abundant.

• It may also occur in wetter portions of otherwise dry or seasonally dry habitats.

Size

• Adult length: approximately 5–5.5 mm.

• Small and relatively slender, with a generally brown or dark brown appearance.

• The pale terminal portion of the antenna is an important identification feature.