17-801: Castolus is a genus of assassin bugs in the family Reduviidae . There are about 16 described species in Castolus . These 16 species belong to the genus Castolus : This Cimicomorpha article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Assassin bug Bactrodinae Centrocnemidinae Cetherinae Chryxinae Ectrichodiinae Elasmodeminae Emesinae Microtominae (=Hammacerinae) Harpactorinae Holoptilinae Manangocorinae Peiratinae Phimophorinae Phymatinae Physoderinae Pseudocetherinae Reduviinae Saicinae Salyavatinae Sphaeridopinae Stenopodainae Triatominae Tribelocephalinae Vesciinae Visayanocorinae The Reduviidae
34-450: Is Reduvius personatus , known as the masked hunter because of its habit of camouflaging itself with dust. Some species tend to feed on pests such as cockroaches or bedbugs and are accordingly popular in regions where people regard their hunting as beneficial. Reduvius personatus is an example, and some people breed them as pets and for pest control. Some assassin bug subfamilies are adapted to hunting certain types of prey; for example,
51-630: Is a large cosmopolitan family of the suborder Heteroptera of the order Hemiptera (true bugs). Among the Hemiptera and together with the Nabidae almost all species are terrestrial ambush predators ; most other predatory Hemiptera are aquatic. The main examples of non-predatory Reduviidae are some blood-sucking ectoparasites in the subfamily Triatominae , with a few species from South America noted for their ability to transmit Chagas disease . Though spectacular exceptions are known, most members of
68-441: 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 each side. The prothorax never bears wings in extant insects (except in some cases of atavism ), though some fossil groups possessed wing-like projections. All adult insects possess legs on
85-470: The Ectrichodiinae eat millipedes , and feather-legged bugs eat ants. A spectacular example of the latter is Ptilocnemus lemur , an Australian species in which the adult attacks and eats ants, but the nymph waits until the ant bites the feathery tufts on its hind legs, upon which it whips around and pierces the ant's head with its proboscis, and proceeds to feed. Some research on the nature of
102-479: The prosternum , where it can be used to produce sound by stridulation . Sound is made by rasping the proboscis against ridges in this groove or stridulitrum (stridulatory organ). These sounds are often used to discourage predators. When harassed, many species can deliver a painful stab with the proboscis, injecting venom or digestive juices. The effects can be intensely painful and the injection from some species may be medically significant. Predatory Reduviidae use
119-500: The Gram-positive ( Streptococcus pyogenes ). Some species are bloodsuckers rather than predators, and they are accordingly far less welcome to humans. The blood-feeding habit is thought to have evolved from species that lived in the nests of mammalian hosts. Several species are known to live among bat roosts, including Cavernicola pilosa , Triatoma dimidiata and Eratyrus mucronatus . Triatoma species and other members of
136-487: The death of 12,000 people a year. The Emesinae live among spider webs. Current taxonomy is based on morphological characteristics. The first cladistic analysis based on molecular data (mitochondrial and nuclear ribosomal DNA) was published in 2009 and called into question the monophyly of some current groups, such as the Emesinae . Reduviidae are monophyletic, and the "Phymatine Complex" is consistently recovered as
153-535: The family are fairly easily recognizable: they have a relatively narrow neck, sturdy build, and formidable curved proboscis (sometimes called a rostrum ). Large specimens should be handled with caution, if at all, because they sometimes defend themselves with a very painful stab from the proboscis. The family members are almost all predatory, except for a few blood-sucking species, some of which are important as disease vectors. About 7000 species have been described, in more than 20 recognized subfamilies, making it one of
170-597: The largest families in the Hemiptera. The name Reduviidae is derived from the type genus , Reduvius . That name, in turn, comes from the Latin reduvia , meaning " hangnail " or "remnant". Possibly this name was inspired by the lateral flanges on the abdomen of many species. Common genera include: While members of most subfamilies have no common names other than assassin bugs , some subfamilies have their own common names such as: Adult insects range from roughly 12 to 36 mm (0.47 to 1.42 in), depending on
187-468: The long rostrum to inject a lethal saliva that liquefies the insides of the prey, which are then sucked out. The saliva contains enzymes that digest the tissues they swallow. This process is generally referred to as extraoral digestion . The saliva is commonly effective at killing prey substantially larger than the bug itself. The legs of some Reduviidae have areas covered in tiny hairs that aid in holding onto their prey while they feed. Others, members of
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#1732794025574204-429: The prothorax, though in a few groups (e.g., the butterfly family Nymphalidae ) the forelegs are greatly reduced. In many groups of insects, the pronotum is reduced in size, but in a few it is hypertrophied, such as in all beetles ( Coleoptera ). In most treehoppers (family Membracidae , order Hemiptera ), the pronotum is expanded into often fantastic shapes that enhance their camouflage or mimicry . Similarly, in
221-570: The sister to the higher Reduviidae, which includes 90 percent of the reduviid species diversity. Reduviidae is suggested to have split from other Cimicomorphs during the Jurassic, based on molecular clock. The oldest fossils of the family are from the Late Cretaceous ( Cenomanian ) aged Burmese amber , represented by nymphs and the genus Paleotriatoma , belonging to the subfamily Triatominae . Prosternum The prothorax
238-406: The species. They most commonly have an elongated head with a distinct narrowed 'neck', long legs, and prominent, segmented, tubular mouthparts, most commonly called the proboscis, but some authors use the term "rostrum". Most species are bright in colour with hues of brown, black, red, or orange. The most distinctive feature of the family is that the tip of the proboscis fits into a ridged groove in
255-572: The subfamily Phymatinae in particular, have forelegs that resemble those of the praying mantis , and they catch and hold their prey in a similar way to mantises. As nymphs , some species cover and camouflage themselves effectively with debris or the remains of dead prey insects. The nymphal instars of the species Acanthaspis pedestris present one good example of this behaviour where they occur in Tamil Nadu in India. Another well-known species
272-479: The subfamily Triatominae , such as Rhodnius species, Panstrongylus megistus , and Paratriatoma hirsuta , are known as kissing bugs, because they tend to bite sleeping humans in the soft tissue around the lips and eyes. A more serious problem than their bites is the fact that several of these haematophagous Central and South American species transmit the potentially fatal trypanosomal Chagas disease , sometimes called American trypanosomiasis. This results in
289-711: The venom from certain Reduviidae is under way. The saliva of Rhynocoris marginatus showed some insecticidal activity in vitro , in tests on lepidopteran pests. The effects included reduction of food consumption, assimilation, and use. Its antiaggregation factors also affected the aggregation and mobility of haemocytes. The saliva of the species Rhynocoris marginatus (Fab.) and Catamirus brevipennis (Servile) have been studied because of their activity against human pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria (including strains of Escherichia coli , Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Proteus vulgaris , and Salmonella typhimurium ) and
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