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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hemiptera |
Cryptostemmatidae, Ceratocombidae
Salient features of adults. Terrestrial (in wet places).
Probably predacious. Tiny; 1.1–2.4 mm long; fliers; relatively stout bodied. Head non-linear. Rostrum clearly separated ventrally from the prosternum by a sclerotized gula; short, or longer in Ceratocombus 3 segmented. Antennae longer than the head, readily visible from above; 4 segmented; non-aristate; with segments 3 + 4 very slender, and twice as long as segments 1 + 2 (the basal two small, the third and fourth long and pilose, the third basally swollen). Ocelli present; 2 (so close to the eyes as to be easily overlooked). Scutellum relatively small. Fore-wings well developed; more or less uniform in texture; with a costal fracture and cuneus (the fracture short in Ceratocombus, extending half-way across the hemelytron in the other two species); with a clavus. Hind coxae mobile; hinged. Tarsi 3 segmented. Pulvilli absent (?). The abdomen without ventral silvery pubescence.
Head porrect.
Taxonomy. Suborder Heteroptera; Dipsocoroidea.
British representation. 3 species in Britain; genera 3. Ceratocombus, Cryptostemma, Pachycoleus.
Illustrations. • Ceratocombus coleoptratus, Cryptostemma alienum (Southwood & Leston). • Ceratocombus coleoptratus and Cryptostemma alienum, with Cimicidae and Saldidae: 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).
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’.
