British Insects: the Families of Hemiptera
| British Insects: the Families of Hemiptera | |
Berytinidae, Neididae.
Stilt Bugs.
Salient features of adults. Terrestrial.
Phytophagous (often on legumes). Tiny, or small; 4–12 mm long; fliers, or non-fliers; emitting repugnatorial liquid as a defence reaction; with narrow-elongate bodies; conspicuously stilt-legged. Head strongly transversely grooved (constricted) between the eyes (cf. Reduviidae). Rostrum clearly separated ventrally from the prosternum by a sclerotized gula; 4 segmented. Antennae longer than the head, readily visible from above; 4 segmented; non-aristate. Ocelli present. Fore-wings well developed to vestigial or absent (?); in the resting insect lying more or less flat over the abdomen; when macropterous, differentiated into a basally thickened and a distally membranous region. Tarsi 3 segmented (?). Pulvilli present. The abdomen without ventral silvery pubescence.
Comments. Insects with red or yellow ground colour; last antennal segment expanded and with a dark tip; femora expanded and usually darkened towards the tips.
Taxonomy. Suborder Heteroptera; Lygaeoidea.
British representation. Genera 5; 13 species.
Illustrations: • Gampsocoris punctipes (Elegant Stilt-bug: B. Ent. 150). • Berytinus clavipes (dissections: B. Ent. 150). • G. punctipes, B. clavipes (legend+text: B. Ent. 150). • G. punctipes, B. clavipes (text: B. Ent. 150, cont.).
The interactive key offers full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. British insects: the families of Hemiptera. Version: 9th April 2007. http://delta-intkey.com’.
