HEMIPTERA: BUGS
Definition
- The mouthparts are like a drinking-straw with a piercing apex.
- The life history lacks a pupal stage:- thus egg, larva which resembles a small adult without wings, and adult.
- There are three major types:-
- Heteroptera bugs (‘different winged’), with forewings somewhat hardened and the hind wings membranous, including shield bugs, grass bugs, water boatmen and pond skaters.
- Auchenorrhyncha bugs where the forewings are usually consistently leathery, including hoppers and cicadas.
- Sternorrhyncha bugs where the forewings (when present) are usually consistently very thin, small bugs including psyllids, plantlice, aphids, whiteflies and scale insects.
- In size adults mainly range from less than 1 mm to 15 mm, though the water stick insect can be 40 mm long including the ‘tail’ and the New Forest cicada can be 30 mm long, and quite a heavy weight.
What they do & where they live
- Most sit on plants and suck sap from the plant's vessels or tissues, in some cases when underground or in galls. Others are predatory on other insects.
- Hemiptera occur in most places with plants, though where there are few plant species or a harsh climate there are likely to be few bugs. Some predator bugs live on bare soil or within sparse colonising vegetation.
Number of species
- About 1,700 species live in Britain.
- Worldwide, the total is about 68,000 described species, though many more remain to be found, especially in the tropics.
It's Amazing Many bugs communicate by singing to each other, while cicadas are very loud, leafhopper songs are quiet but they can hear each other because their feet are sensitive to the vibrations running through the plant.
