Alydidae, commonly known as broad-headed bugs, is a

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideall ...

true bug Hemiptera (; ) is an order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising over 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, assassin bugs, bed bugs, and shield bugs. They range in size from to arou ...

s very similar to the closely related

Coreidae Coreidae is a large family of predominantly sap-sucking insects in the Hemipteran suborder Heteroptera. The name "Coreidae" derives from the genus '' Coreus'', which derives from the Ancient Greek () meaning bedbug. As a family, the Coreidae ...

(leaf-footed bugs and relatives). There are at least 60

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomencl ...

and 300

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

altogether. Distributed in the

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...

and warmer regions of the Earth, most are

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

and

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical and climate zones to the north and south of the tropics. Geographically part of the temperate zones of both hemispheres, they cover the middle latitudes from to approximately 35° north and ...

animals; for example Europe has a mere 10 species, and only 2 of these occur outside the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

region.

Names

Broad-headed bugs are known as knobe in the Meto and Funai

Helong Helong (; Chosŏn'gŭl: 화룡; Hangul: 허룽) is a county-level city in southeastern Jilin province, Northeast China. It is under the administration of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture. Administrative divisions Helong has three subdi ...

languages of

West Timor West Timor ( id, Timor Barat) is an area covering the western part of the island of Timor, except for the district of Oecussi-Ambeno (an East Timorese exclave). Administratively, West Timor is part of East Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia. The c ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea. In ...

Description

Broad-headed bugs are up to long, and have slender bodies. Some have long and very thin legs. The most notable characteristics of the family are that the head is broad, often similar in length and width to the

pronotum The prothorax is the foremost of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the first pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the pronotum ( dorsal), the prosternum (ventral), and the propleuron ( lateral) on ...

and the scutellum, and that the last antennal segments are elongated and curved. The

compound eye A compound eye is a visual organ found in arthropods such as insects and crustaceans. It may consist of thousands of ommatidia, which are tiny independent photoreception units that consist of a cornea, lens, and photoreceptor cells which disti ...

s are globular and protruding, and they also have

ocelli A simple eye (sometimes called a pigment pit) refers to a form of eye or an optical arrangement composed of a single lens and without an elaborate retina such as occurs in most vertebrates. In this sense "simple eye" is distinct from a multi-le ...

. The

femora The femur (; ), or thigh bone, is the proximal bone of the hindlimb in tetrapod vertebrates. The head of the femur articulates with the acetabulum in the pelvic bone forming the hip joint, while the distal part of the femur articulates with t ...

of the hindlegs bear several strong spines; the tarsus has three segments. Most species have well-developed

hemelytra An elytron (; ; , ) is a modified, hardened forewing of beetles (Coleoptera), though a few of the true bugs (Hemiptera) such as the family Schizopteridae are extremely similar; in true bugs, the forewings are called hemelytra (sometimes alterna ...

(forewings), allowing them to fly well, but in some the hemelytra are vestigial. The membranous part of the hemelytra have several closely spaced long veins. Alydidae are generally of dusky or blackish coloration. The upperside of the

abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the belly, tummy, midriff, tucky or stomach) is the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The abdomen is the front part of the abdominal segment of the torso. ...

is usually bright orange-red. this color patch is normally not visible as it is covered by the wings; it can be exposed, perhaps to warn would-be

predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill t ...

s of these animals' noxiousness: They frequently have scent glands that produce a stink considered to be worse than that of true stink bugs (

Pentatomidae Pentatomidae is a family of insects belonging to the order Hemiptera, generally called shield bugs or stink bugs. Pentatomidae is the largest family in the superfamily Pentatomoidea, and contains around 900 genera and over 4700 species.Robert ...

). The stink is said to smell similar to a bad case of

halitosis Bad breath, also known as halitosis, is a symptom in which a noticeably unpleasant breath odour is present. It can result in anxiety among those affected. It is also associated with depression and symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder. T ...

. Sometimes the adults have reduced wings. Both, nymphs and adults of some species, such as '' Dulichius inflatus'' and '' Hyalymenus'' spp. are

ant mimic Ant mimicry or myrmecomorphy is mimicry of ants by other organisms. Ants are abundant all over the world, and potential predators that rely on vision to identify their prey, such as birds and wasps, normally avoid them, because they are either un ...

s and live in ant nests.

Ecology

These bugs mainly inhabit fairly

arid A region is arid when it severely lacks available water, to the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of plant and animal life. Regions with arid climates tend to lack vegetation and are called xeric or desertic. Most a ...

and sandy

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

, like seashores,

heathland A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a cooler a ...

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the temperate grasslands ...

and

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

s. Their main food is

seed A seed is an Plant embryogenesis, embryonic plant enclosed in a testa (botany), protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, includ ...

s, which they pierce with their

proboscis A proboscis () is an elongated appendage from the head of an animal, either a vertebrate or an invertebrate. In invertebrates, the term usually refers to tubular mouthparts used for feeding and sucking. In vertebrates, a proboscis is an elong ...

to drink the nutritious fluids contained within. Some are economically significant pests, for example '' Leptocorisa oratoria'' on

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and ''Porteresia'', both wild and domesticated, ...

Systematics

Two major lineages are generally accepted as

subfamilies In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zool ...

; a third (the Leptocorisinae) is now placed as a

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to conflic ...

Leptocorisini of the Micrelytrinae.

Genera

These 60 genera belong to the family Alydidae: * '' Acestra'' Dallas, 1852 * '' Alydus'' Fabricius, 1803 * '' Anacestra'' Hsiao, 1964 * '' Apidaurus'' Stål, 1870 * '' Bactrocoris'' Kormilev, 1953 * '' Bactrodosoma'' Stål, 1860 * '' Bactrophya'' Breddin, 1901 * '' Bactrophyamixia'' Brailovsky, 1991 * '' Bloeteocoris'' Ahmad, 1965 * '' Burtinus'' Stål, 1859 * '' Calamocoris'' Breddin, 1901 * '' Camptopus'' Amyot & Serville, 1843 * '' Cosmoleptus'' Stål, 1873 * ''

Cydamus Ghadames or Ghadamis (Berber: ''ʕadémis''; ar, غدامس, Libyan vernacular: ''ɣdāməs'', Latin: ''Cidamus, Cydamus'', it, Gadames) is an oasis Berber town in the Nalut District of the Tripolitania region in northwestern Libya. The ind ...

'' Stål, 1860 * '' Daclera'' Signoret, 1863 * '' Darmistus'' Stål, 1859 * '' Dulichius'' Stål, 1866 * '' Esperanza'' Barber, 1906 * '' Eudarmistus'' Breddin, 1903 * '' Euthetus'' Dallas, 1852 * '' Grypocephalus'' Hsiao, 1963 * '' Hamedius'' Stål, 1860 * '' Heegeria'' Reuter, 1881 * '' Hyalymenus'' Amyot & Serville, 1843 * '' Hypselopus'' Burmeister, 1835 * '' Leptocorisa'' Latreille, 1829 * '' Longicoris'' Ahmad, 1968 * ''

Lyrnessus In Greek mythology, Lyrnessus (; grc, Λυρνησσός) was a town or city in Dardania (Asia minor), inhabited by Cilicians. It was closely associated with the nearby Cilician Thebe. At the time of the Trojan War, it was said to have been ruled ...

'' Stål, 1862 * '' Marcius'' Stål, 1865 * '' Megalotomus'' Fieber, 1860 * '' Melanacanthus'' Stål, 1873 * '' Micrelytra'' Laporte, 1833 * '' Mirperus'' Stål, 1860 * '' Mutusca'' Stål, 1866 * '' Nariscus'' Stål, 1866 * ''

Nemausus Deus Nemausus is often said to have been the Celtic patron god of Nemausus (Nîmes). The god does not seem to have been worshipped outside this locality. The city certainly derives its name from Nemausus, which was perhaps the sacred wood in which ...

'' Stål, 1866 * '' Neomegalotomus'' Schaffner & Schaefer, 1998 * '' Noliphus'' Stål, 1859 * '' Oxycranum'' Bergroth, 1910 * '' Paramarcius'' Hsiao, 1964 * '' Paraplesius'' Scott, 1874 * '' Planusocoris'' * '' Protenor'' Stål, 1867 * '' Rimadarmistus'' Bliven, 1956 * '' Riptortus'' Stål, 1860 * '' Robustocephalus'' Ahmad, Abbas, Shadab & Khan, 1979 * '' Slateria'' Ahmad, 1965 * '' Stachyocnemus'' Stål, 1870 * '' Stachyolobus'' Stål, 1871 * '' Stenocoris'' Burmeister, 1839 (rice bugs) * '' Tenosius'' Stål, 1860 * '' Tollius'' Stål, 1870 * '' Trachelium'' Herrich-Schäffer, 1850 * '' Tuberculiformia'' Ahmad, 1967 * '' Tupalus'' Stål, 1860 * '' Zulubius'' Bergroth, 1894 * † '' Heeralydus'' Štys & Riha, 1975 * † '' Orthriocorisa'' Scudder, 1890 * † '' Sulcalydus'' Štys & Riha, 1975 * † '' Willershausenia'' Popov, 2007 Alydidae by kadavoor.jpg, Riptortus sp. in

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South Canar ...

DulichusInflatus.jpg, '' Dulichius inflatus'', ant mimic

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1640226 Coreoidea Heteroptera families