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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hemiptera |
Acanthiidae; excluding Anthocoridae
Bed Bugs, Bloodsucking Bugs.
Salient features of adults. Terrestrial.
Blood-suckers. Tiny to small; 3–5 mm long; non-fliers; relatively stout bodied. Head non-linear. Rostrum clearly separated ventrally from the prosternum by a sclerotized gula. Antennae longer than the head, readily visible from above; 4 segmented; non-aristate. Ocelli absent. Fore-wings vestigial or absent (reduced to short, transverse scales). Tarsi 3 segmented. Pulvilli absent. The abdomen without ventral silvery pubescence.
Oval, very flattened, flightless ectoparasites feeding on the blood of mammals and birds; most body hairs serrate or apically bifid.
Taxonomy. Suborder Heteroptera; Cimicoidea.
British representation. 32 species in Britain; genera 14. Brachysteles, Cardiastethus, Cimex, Dufouriellus, Lyctocoris, Oeciacus, Orius, Xylocoridea, Xylocoris. E.g., Cimex lectularius (Bed-bug).
Comments. The native Bed Bug seems not to transmit diseases, loss of sleep from constant irritation being the main danger to health from their bites.
Illustrations. • Cimex lectularius (Bed-bug: B. Ent. 569). • Cimex lectularius (detail: B. Ent. 569). • Cimex lectularius (dissections: B. Ent. 569). • Cimex lectularius (legend+text: B. Ent. 569). • Cimex lectularius (text: B. Ent. 569, cont.). • Acompocoris, Anthocoris, Cardiastethus, Lyctocoris, Xylocoris (Southwood & Leston). • Orius majusculus and Orius minutus, with Anthocoridae: 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). • Cimex, Oeciacus hirundinis, Lyctocoris campestris and Xylocoris, with Saldidae and Dipsocoridae: Saunders (1892).. SALDIDAE. 1, Chartoscirta elegantula (as Salda); 2, Chartoscirta cincta (as Salda). DIPSORORIDAE. 3, Ceratocombus coleoptratus; 4, Cryptostemma alienum. CIMICIDAE. 5, Cimex lectularius; 6, Oeciacus hirundinis (as Cimex); 7, Cimex pipistrelli; 8, Lyctocoris campestris; 9, Xylocoris galactinus (as Piezostethus); 10, Xylocoris formicetorum (as Piezostethus). From Saunders (1892). • Brachysteles parvicornis, Cardiastethus fasciiventris and Dufouriellus ater, with Microphysidae: Saunders, 1892.. CIMICIDAE. 1, Brachysteles parvicornis. 2, Cardiastethus fasciiventris. 3, Dufouriellus ater. MICROPHYSIDAE. 4 and 5, Loricula pselaphiformis, male and female respectively. 6 and 7, Loricula elegantula, male and female respectively. 8, Myrmedobia tenella, male. 9 and 10, Myrmedobia coleoptrata, male and female respectively. 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’.
