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Assassin Bug


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COMMON NAMES: Assassin Bug, Giant Wheel Bug, Wheel Bug

 

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Order Heteroptera, family Reduviidae, many species

 

SIZE: Adult—3/8" to 1 5/8"

 

 

IDENTIFICATION: Various colors and sizes, look like skinny stink bugs or leaf-footed bugs. Abdomen often flares out beneath the wings. Head is elongate with a groove between the eyes. Short curved rostrum (swordlike snout) fits in groove under body. Strong front legs to hold prey. Adults can give you a painful bite if handled but rarely do.

 

This is a form of assassin bug called the giant wheel bug.

 

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Photo courtesy of Robert Forsbach

 

BIOLOGY AND LIFE CYCLE: Eggs usually laid singly or in clusters on branches, in crevices, and under stones and the like. Nymphs are often brightly colored. Incomplete life cycle – with normally one generation per season. Will hibernate in all life forms – eggs, nymphs, and adults.

 

HABITAT: Many ornamental and food crops.

 

FEEDING HABITS: Eat adults, nymphs, and larvae of many plant-eating insects. Like to eat troublesome insects from mosquitoes to large beetles. Favorite foods include aphids, leafhoppers, beetle larvae, caterpillars, and small flying insects.

 

 

ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE: Control many troublesome plant-eating insects.

 

NATURAL CONTROL: Spiders and themselves. The young feed on each other.

 

ORGANIC CONTROL: None needed, highly beneficial.

 

INSIGHT: Assassin bugs in the genus Triatoma, called kissing bugs, bite people at night. They are blood feeders. See Kissing Bug.

 

 

 

 

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