British Insects: the Families of Hemiptera
British Insects: the Families of Hemiptera |
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Shield Bugs, Stink Bugs.
Salient features of adults. Terrestrial.
Phytophagous. Tiny to large; 4–11 mm long; not extremely noisy (compared with Cicadidae, but generating sound by rubbing toothed, wart-like tubercles of the hind tibia against the femur); fliers; emitting repugnatorial liquid as a defence reaction (? - cf. Pentatomidae). Head non-linear. Rostrum clearly separated ventrally from the prosternum by a sclerotized gula. Antennae longer than the head, readily visible from above; 5 segmented; non-aristate. Ocelli present. Scutellum very large (this more or less U-shaped, extending to the end of the abdomen). Metathorax with a scent-gland opening, comprising a funnel surrounded by a dull patch of elaborately sculptured cuticle, visible laterally on either side (?). Fore-wings well developed; in the resting insect lying more or less flat over the abdomen; differentiated into a basally thickened and a distally membranous region; with a clavus. Tarsi 3 segmented. The abdomen without ventral silvery pubescence.
Conspicuously hairy, brown bugs. Distinguished from the Pentatomidae with a much elongated scutellum by the absence of slender, pointed anterior projections from the pronotum.
Taxonomy. Suborder Heteroptera; Pentatomoidea.
British representation. Genera 2 (Eurygaster, Odontoscelis); 5 species.
Comments. Eurygaster species feeding on grass caryopses are pests of cereals in some parts of the world.
Illustrations. • Odontoscelis fuliginosa: B. Ent. 685. • Odontoscelis fuliginosa: B. Ent. 685, legend+text. • Odontoscelis fuliginosa: B. Ent. 685, text cont.. • Eurygaster, Odontoscelis (Southwood & Leston).
To view the illustrations with detailed captions, go to the interactive key. This also 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: 18th September 2008. http://delta-intkey.com’.
