British Insects: the Families of Hemiptera
| British Insects: the Families of Hemiptera | |
Shore Bugs.
Salient features of adults. Terrestrial; littoral (commonly), or not littoral (in damp places).
Predacious (with non-raptorial fore-legs, usually hunting on bare ground). Tiny to small; fliers and non-fliers; conspicuous jumpers; not emitting repugnatorial liquid; relatively stout bodied; conspicuously stilt-legged to not stilt-legged. Head not transversely grooved between the eyes. Rostrum clearly separated ventrally from the prosternum by a sclerotized gula; 3 segmented. Antennae longer than the head, readily visible from above; non-aristate. Ocelli present; between the eyes. Metathorax without laterally visible scent gland openings (metathorax without scent glands). Fore-wings well developed, or conspicuous, but much shorter than the abdomen, or vestigial or absent; in the resting insect lying more or less flat over the abdomen; of macropters, differentiated into a basally thickened and a distally membranous region; without costal fracture and cuneus; of macropters, with a clavus. Fore-legs non-raptorial. Hind coxae mobile; hinged. Pulvilli absent. The abdomen without ventral silvery pubescence.
Comments. Rapid runners and fliers, with large eyes; often but not always black with whitish markings.
Taxonomy. Suborder Heteroptera; Saldoidea.
British representation. Genera 8; 22 species.
Illustrations: • Halosalda lateralis (Beautiful Acanthia: B. Ent. 548). • Halosalda lateralis (detail, dissections: B. Ent. 548). • Halosalda lateralis (legend+text: B. Ent. 548).
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’.
