|
| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hemiptera |
Nabididae
Damsel Bugs.
Salient features of adults. Terrestrial.
Predacious (aggressive, holding prey with the fore-legs). Small to large; 5.5–10 mm long; fliers; probably emitting repugnatorial liquid as a defence reaction; with narrow-elongate bodies; conspicuously stilt-legged. Rostrum clearly separated ventrally from the prosternum by a sclerotized gula; 4 segmented (long and slender). Antennae longer than the head, readily visible from above; 4 segmented, or 5 segmented; non-aristate. 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; differentiated into a basally thickened and a distally membranous region; with a costal fracture and cuneus; with a clavus. Fore-legs modified and raptorial to non-raptorial. Hind coxae mobile; rotatory. Tarsi 3 segmented. Claws all apical. Pulvilli absent. The abdomen without ventral silvery pubescence.
Soft-bodied; by contrast with Reduviidae, the prosternum lacks a stridulatory groove; the fore-legs less obviously raptorial in form, and the curved rostrum is longer.
Taxonomy. Suborder Heteroptera; Cimicoidea.
British representation. 13 species in Britain; genera 6. Aptus, Dolichonabis, Himacerus, Nabis, Prostemma, Stalia.
Illustrations. • Prostemma guttula: B. Ent. 684. • Prostemma guttula: B. Ent. 684, legend+text. • Prostemma guttula: B. Ent. 684, text cont.. • Dolichonabis, Himacerus, Nabis (Southwood & Leston). • Aptus, Dolichonabis, Himacerus, Nabis, Prostemma and Stalia, with Reduviidae: Saunders (1892).. REDUVIIDAE. 1, Reduvius personatus; 2, Coranus subapterus. NABIDAE. 3, Prostemma guttulata; 4, Himacerus apterus (as Nabis brevipennis); 5, Aptus mirmicoides (macropterous, as Nabis lativentris); 6, Stalia major (as Nabis); 7, Stalia boops (as Nabis); 8, Nabis flavomarginatus (macropterous); 9, Dolichonabis limbatus (as Nabis); 10, Dolichonabis lineatus (as Nabis). From Saunders (1892). • Nabis ferus and Nabis rugosus, with Saldidae: Saunders (1892).. NABIDAE. 1, Nabis ferus; 2, Nabis rugosus. SALDIDAE. (All as Salda spp. in the original legend.) 3, Chiloxanthus pilosus; 4 and 4a, Halosalda lateralis, macropterous and brachypterous respectively. 5, Teloleuca pellucens (as S. riparia); 6, Saldula scotica; 7, Salda morio; 8, Salda littoralis; 9, Saldula c-album; 10, Micranthia marginalis. 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’.
