Biota

Exploring Nature

Order Hemiptera

Kingdom: Animalia > Phylum: Arthropoda > Class: Insecta > Order: Hemiptera

True bugs, hoppers, aphids & allies

This is a large group of insects with more than 75,000 species, nearly 2,000 of which can be found in the UK. They include shieldbugs, plant bugs, bed bugs, pondskaters, cicadas, water bugs, aphids, and scale insects.

They all have piercing mouthparts contained in a beak (or rostrum), usually held underneath the body when not in use, used to suck the juices from mostly plants, but some feed on animals. Although some, like the aphids, are serious agricultural pests, most are not.

Some bugs resemble beetles, but beetles have wing covers that do not overlap, unlike the bugs.

The order has now been divided into 4 suborders with numerous superfamilies. I have only listed superfamilies and families where I have at least one photo.

  • Suborder Auchenorrhyncha (Cicadas, Hoppers, and Spittlebugs)
  • Suborder Coleorrhyncha (Moss bugs)
  • Suborder Heteroptera
  • Suborder Sternorrhyncha (Plant-parasitic Hemipterans)

Spittlebugs (Superfamily Cercopoidea)

  • Family Cercopidae (Froghoppers)
    • Cercopis vulnerata, Red-and-black frog hopper (UK)

Cicadas (Superfamily Cicadoidae)

  • Family Cicadidae (Typical Cicadas)
    • Meimuna opalifera, Walker’s Cicada (China)
    • Quesada gigas, Giant Cicada (Trinidad)

Leaf-footed Bugs and Allies (Superfamily Coreoidea)

  • Family Coreidae (Leaf-footed bugs)
    • Coreus marginatus, Dock bug (UK)
    • Graptostethus incomptus (Bhutan)
    • Leptoscelis tricolor, Heliconia bug (Costa Rica)

Seed Bugs and Allies (Superfamily Lygaeoidea)

  • Family Lygaeidae (Seed Bugs)
    • Graptostethus incomptus (Bhutan)

Superfamily Miroidea

  • Family Miridae
    • Hadrodemus m-flavum, nymph (Spain)

Stink Bugs, Shield Bugs, and Allies (Superfamily Pentatomoidea)

  • Family Acanthosomatidae (Shield bugs)
    • Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale, Hawthorn shieldbug (UK)
    • Elasmucha grisea, Parent Bug (UK)
  • Family Pentatomidae (Stink bugs)
    • Erthesina fullo, Yellow spotted stink bug (Hong Kong)
    • Graphosoma italicum, European striped shieldbug (France?)
    • Palomena prasina, Green shieldbug nymphs (UK)
    • Pentatoma rufipes, Forest bug (UK)
    • Picromerus bidens, the spiny shieldbug (UK?)
  • Family Scutelleridae (Jewel bugs )
    • Eurygaster testudinaria, Tortoise bug

Red and Bordered Plant Bugs (Superfamily Pyrrhocoroidea)

  • Family Pyrrhocoridae (Red bugs)
    • Pyrrhocoris apterus, European Firebug (Spain)