Hemiptera, known as True Bugs, is a very large and diverse order. They are found all over the world; there are few habitats without a Hemiptera adapted to living there. There are 80,000 described species in 37 families. The order is divided into three suborders: Geocorizae (terrestrial bugs), Amphibicorizae (semiaquatic or shore-inhabiting bugs), and Hydrocorizae (aquatic bugs).
Hemiptera are also important in agriculture, known to cause direct damage to plants by herbivory and indirectly by transporting diseases (Dooling, 1991). Predatory Hemiptera have also been used in agricultural systems to control pests (Coll and Ruberson, 1998).
Called the true bugs, insects in the order hemiptera have a particular structure of the front wings from which the order gets its name
Basal portion of the front wing is thickened and leathery
Apical portion is membranous (this type of wing is called hemelytron, or hemelytran if single)
Hind wings are completely membranous and shorter than the front wings
Wings at rest are held over the abdomen with membranous tips overlapping
Other characeristics of Hemiptera include:
piercing-sucking mouth parts
Mouth part in form of segmented beak arising from front part of the head and extending back along the ventral side of the body at times as far as the base of the hind legs
Antennae are fairly long and contain four to five segments
Compound eyes are usually well developed
Many have glands secreting unpleasant odor
Well developed wings in general
Some are wingless
Eggs cases may be layed on plants or sometimes just dropped
Simple metamorphosis with mostly five nymphal instars
Most species are terrestrial but some are aquatic
Predacious ones are beneficial to man
Some may serve as disease vectors
Hemiptera means “half-wings”, referring to how the wings overlap and how they are made of two dissimilar halves. (Slater and Baranowski, 1978)
Common Name: True Bugs
Classification
truebug 