Berytidae is a

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

of the order

Hemiptera Hemiptera (; ) is an order (biology), order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising over 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, Reduviidae, assassin bugs, Cimex, bed bugs, and shield bugs. ...

("true bugs"), commonly called stilt bugs or thread bugs. Most berytids are brown to yellow, with species that are plant sap feeders, a few being predaceous. About 200 species are known from all around the world and they are classified into three subfamilies.

Description

The Berytidae are extremely

gracile Gracility is slenderness, the condition of being gracile, which means slender. It derives from the Latin adjective ''gracilis'' (masculine or feminine), or ''gracile'' ( neuter), which in either form means slender, and when transferred for examp ...

insects with legs so long and slender as to suggest common names such as "thread bugs" and "stilt bugs". In this they resemble the

Emesinae The Emesinae, or thread-legged bugs, are a subfamily of the Reduviidae (i.e., assassin bugs). They are conspicuously different from the other reduviids by their very slender body form. They are stalking, predatory insects that can be collected on ...

, with which they are easily confused, though they are in different families. They may be distinguished most readily by the forelegs, that in the Emesinae are raptorial in a way resembling those of the

Mantodea Mantises are an order (Mantodea) of insects that contains over 2,400 species in about 460 genera in 33 families. The largest family is the Mantidae ("mantids"). Mantises are distributed worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats. They ha ...

Mantispidae Mantispidae, known commonly as mantidflies, mantispids, mantid lacewings, mantisflies or mantis-flies, is a family of small to moderate-sized insects in the order Neuroptera. There are many genera with around 400 species worldwide, especially in ...

and certain other

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

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 th ...

s. In form and function the forelegs of the Berytidae are roughly similar to those of their other legs. Other differences are subtler and not fully consistent. For one thing, the antennae of most Berytidae though long, geniculate, and in other ways generally similar to Emesinae, tend to have a more or less obvious swelling at the tip. Some members of the family also have slight swellings at the distal ends of the femora of their legs, though in many species this is either absent or not obvious. The head often has a forward-facing protrusion between the antennae bases. The wing membrane has five veins and can be hard to examine in short-winged forms. Some species have spine like protrusions emerging at the base of the forewings which have a pore through which chemicals are secreted. Many species have split or toothed claws which apparently allow, along with the long legs, these bugs to overcome plant defenses involving stick hair on their surfaces. Many species are not purely plant-sap feeding and will opportunistically scavenge on insects trapped on the surfaces of sticky-haired plants. They typically probe all surfaces and can inflict a painful prick on the human skin as well.

Biology

The habits of most species are not well known. Most are believed to be sap-suckers like most other Hemiptera, but some also feed on mites and small insects.

Subfamilies and selected genera

Three subfamilies are usually recognised:

Berytinae

;tribe Berytini * '' Apoplymus'' Fieber, 1859 * '' Arideneides'' Tatarnic, 2022 * '' Bezu'' Stusak, 1989 * '' Chinoneides'' Stusak, 1989 * '' Neides'' Latreille, 1802 * '' Neoneides'' Stusak, 1989 * '' Yemmatropis'' Hsiao, 1977 ;tribe Berytinini * ''

Berytinus ''Berytinus'' is a genus of stilt bugs in the family Berytidae. There are about 12 described species in ''Berytinus''. Species These 12 species belong to the genus ''Berytinus'': * ''Berytinus clavipes'' Fabricius, 1775 * ''Berytinus consimili ...

'' Kirkaldy, 1900

Gampsocorinae

* '' Bajacanthus'' Henry & Wall, 2019 * '' Gampsocoris'' Fuss, 1852 * '' Hoplinus'' Stal, 1874 * '' Pronotacantha'' Uhler, 1893

Metacanthinae

* '' Capyella'' Breddin, 1907 * '' Jalysus'' Stal, 1862 * '' Metacanthus'' Costa, 1847 * '' Metatropis'' Fieber, 1859 * '' Yemma'' Horvath, 1905

Unplaced genera

* '' Acanthophysa'' Uhler, 1893 * '' Aknisus'' McAtee, 1919 * '' Protacanthus'' Uhler, 1894 * ''

Paleologus The House of Palaiologos ( Palaiologoi; grc-gre, Παλαιολόγος, pl. , female version Palaiologina; grc-gre, Παλαιολογίνα), also found in English-language literature as Palaeologus or Palaeologue, was a Byzantine Greek f ...

'' Distant, 1902

Gallery

Image:Green-Stilt-Bug.jpg, Stilt bug, possibly juvenile? Image:Stiltbug.jpg, Unknown species Image:Stilt4.jpg, Stilt bug File:Metatropis rufescens in copula - 2013-07-01.webm, ''Metatropis rufescens'' in copula File:Berytidae P1410824a.jpg, Stilt bug, Berytidae

References

Heteroptera families Articles containing video clips {{Pentatomomorpha-stub