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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hemiptera |
~ Cimicidae-Anthocorinae
Flower Bugs.
Salient features of adults. Terrestrial.
Predacious (on small, usually immobile invertebrates), or blood-suckers. Tiny to small; 2–6 mm long (‘6 mm or less’); fliers, or non-fliers; emitting repugnatorial liquid as a defence reaction; relatively stout bodied; not stilt-legged. Head non-linear. Rostrum clearly separated ventrally from the prosternum by a sclerotized gula; 3 segmented. Antennae longer than the head, readily visible from above; 4 segmented; non-aristate; with segments 3 + 4 less than twice as long as 1 + 2. Ocelli present. 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 (mostly), or vestigial or absent; when macropterous, with a costal fracture and cuneus; of macropters, with a clavus. Tarsi 3 segmented; two-clawed. Claws all apical. Pulvilli absent. The abdomen without ventral silvery pubescence.
Small, flattened, elongate, soft-bodied bugs, with non-raptorial fore-legs; body hairs normal, by contrast with those of Cimicidae.
Taxonomy. Suborder Heteroptera; Cimicoidea.
British representation. 35 species in Britain; genera 5. Acompocoris, Anthocoris, Elatophilus, Temnostethus, Tetraphleps.
Illustrations. • Anthocoris and Acompocoris (Southwood & Leston). • Anthocoris (larva), Temnostethus, Tetraphleps (Southwood & Leston). • Acompocoris, Anthocoris (4 spp.), Elatophilus, Temnostethus and Tetraphleps, with Orius: Saunders (1892).. ANTHOCORIDAE. 1, Temnostethus pusillus. 2, Elatophilus nigricornis. 3, Anthocoris nemoralis; 4, Anthocoris gallarum-ulmi; 5, Anthocoris visci; 6, Anthocoris sylvestris L., = ?. 7, Tetraphleps vittata. 8, Acompocoris alpinus. CIMICIDAE. 9, Orius niger (as Triphleps); 10, Orius majusculus (as Triphleps). From Saunders (1892).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, 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. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hemiptera. Version: 27th July 2019. delta-intkey.com’.
