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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hemiptera |
Shield Bugs, Stink Bugs, Burrower Bugs.
Salient features of adults. Terrestrial.
Phytophagous (including one root-sucking burrower). Tiny to small; 3–9 mm long; fliers; emitting repugnatorial liquid as a defence reaction (?); 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; 5 segmented; non-aristate. Scutellum very large (but falling well short of 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. Pulvilli present. The abdominal tergites with 6 visible connexivia (according to Imms). The abdomen without ventral silvery pubescence.
Hairless, dark coloured and often metallic, burrowing bugs, supposedly with the connexivia of six abdominal tergites visible, and tibiae with numerous strong spines..
Taxonomy. Suborder Heteroptera; Pentatomoidea.
British representation. 9 species in Britain; genera 5. Aethus, Geotomus, Legnotus, Sehirus, Thyreocoris. E.g., Sehirus dubius (Dark Blue Shield-bug).
Illustrations. • Sehirus dubius (Dark Blue Shield-bug: B. Ent. 74). • Sehirus dubius: B. Ent. 74, legend+text. • Sehirus dubius: B. Ent. 74, text cont.. • Sehirus bicolor, with Pentatomidae (Southwood & Leston). • Geotomus, Sehirus and Thyreocoris (with Pentatomidae and Scutellaridae): Saunders, 1892.. SCUTELLERIDAE. 1. Odontoscelis fuliginosa; 3, Eurygaster maura; 4, Eurygaster austriaca (as E. nigra). PENTATOMIDAE. 5, Podops inuncta. CYDNIDAE. 2, Thyreocoris scarabaeoides (as Corimelaena); 6, Geotomus punctulatus. 7, Sehirus bicolor; 8, Sehirus dubius; 9, Sehirus biguttatus; 10, Sehirus luctuosus (as S. morio). 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’.
