Bed bugs

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Bed bugs
Green stink bug (Palomena prasina)

Green stink bug ( Palomena prasina )

Systematics
Trunk : Arthropod (arthropoda)
Superclass : Six-footed (Hexapoda)
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Subclass : Flying insects (Pterygota)
Order : Schnabelkerfe (Hemiptera)
Subordination : Bed bugs
Scientific name
Heteroptera
Latreille , 1810
Partial orders

For families see the systematics of bedbugs

Bugs (Heteroptera) are insects and belong to the order of the Schnabelkerfe (Hemiptera). Of the around 40,000 known species worldwide, around 3,000 live in Europe.

Their order is characterized by a very high diversity in forms, way of life and habitats : There are plant suckers , a number of predatory species, but also ectoparasites such as the bed bug . They live in a wide variety of biotopes , including meadows , on the edges of forests , in the forest and in human dwellings.

Habitat and Distribution

Bed bugs are common all over the world. There are hardly any habitats where bed bugs do not exist. The individual species can have different location requirements. In general, most types of bedbugs love heat and drought ( xerothermophil ). Some species prefer more humid locations ( hygrophil ), others live in bogs ( tyrphophil ), in sand habitats ( psammophil ) or in salt habitats ( halophil ). There are also aquatic species that live in the water and epineustic species that exist on the surface of the water. Some species from the family of sea sandpipers (Halobatinae), genus Halobates, are the only insects that live permanently in the open ocean.

Anatomy of the bedbugs

Bugs exist like all insects from three body sections, which in turn made up of three or more individual segment sections are composed: head ( caput ), chest ( thorax ) and abdomen ( abdomen ).

head

Common fire bugs ( Pyrrhocoris apterus ) mating

All groups belonging to the bugs are identified by a proboscis . Unlike the cicadas (Auchenorrhyncha) and plant lice (Sternorrhyncha), this is not shifted to the throat or chest area, but sits directly on the head area. There are usually four-part feelers or antennas on the head . In some species, such as the ground bugs (Lygaeidae) and the earth bugs (Cydnidae), there are often elongated intermediate pieces between the antennae links, which simulate real links. In the area of ​​the vertex between the complex eyes there are individual eyes ( ocelles ), which can be missing in some families. In the middle in front of the complex eyes and the forehead is the forehead callus ( clypeus ). It is flanked on both sides by the cheeks ( Paraclypei ). On the underside of the head are the cheek plates ( bucculae ) , which often form a longitudinal groove, with the attachment of the mouthparts, which form a proboscis (rostrum). The piercing-sucking mouthparts consist of a three or four-part tube ( labium , lower lip), which has a narrow longitudinal groove on the top. This is covered on the outside by the upper lip ( labrum ). Piercing bristles ( mandibles ) insert on both sides , which have sharp teeth at their tips and with the help of which tiny holes can be drilled in plants or prey. The mandibles surround the maxillae , which in turn surround two channels - a food channel and a saliva channel.

chest

Strip bug ( Graphosoma lineatum )

The chest section (thorax) is divided into three segments: prothorax, meso- and metathorax. Each of these segments carries a pair of legs. The back part of the Prothorax is called neck plate designated (pronotum). The back of the mesothorax is called the scutellum . Both elements are often designed very differently in the various bug families. In some species, for example in the shield bugs , the label can protrude over the wings to the tip of the abdomen. The corresponding chest sections on the abdominal side are referred to as the pro, meso- and metasternum; the lateral pro, meso and metapleurs. The metapleurs carry the openings of the bedbugs' characteristic scent glands as well as a pair of respiratory openings ( stigmas ). The meso- and metathorax are the wing-bearing elements. The front wings are partially, up to two thirds, hardened ( sclerotized ) and consist of a hard front area (corium) and a membranous rear membrane. In this case one speaks of half-ceilings ( hemielytres ). On the inside of the corium there is an area called the clavus. The hind wings are always completely membranous, but can also be absent. The structure of the legs follows the scheme of the insect extremities . They consist of the hip ( coxa ), the thigh ring ( trochanter ), thigh ( femur ), splint ( tibia ) and foot ( tarsus ). The foot has claws, adhesive flaps and hair on the tip. The legs can be transformed into running, jumping, catching or swimming legs to suit their specific way of life.

Abdomen

Red-legged stink bug ( Pentatoma rufipes )

The abdomen of bugs consists of eleven segments as well as the end portion of the nichtsegmentalen telson . The segments are more or less flattened. On the back ( dorsal ) they form the tergum or the individual tergites , on the abdomen ( ventral ) the sternum or the individual sternites . The firm tergites and sternites are connected to one another by elastic intersegmental membranes. The lateral parts of the segments, the connexive , are formed from dorsal and ventral laterotergites (i.e. sclerites derived from the tergum). They can be very broad. Their training and color samples are often relevant for determination. In the males, the ninth segment is the carrier of the genital organs, which in the females are divided between the eighth and ninth segments. The breath openings (spiracles) are located in certain segments. Typically eight pairs are formed in the anterior abdominal segments. In land-living bedbugs, the breathing openings are provided with a locking device with their own muscles.

Body type of bedbugs
Heteroptera morphology-d.svg
Heteroptera morphology-v.svg
Heteroptera morphology-l.svg


A : Head
B : Thorax (trunk)
C : Abdomen (abdomen)
––––––––––––––––
1 foot claws
2 feet ( tarsus )
3 tibia
4 femur (thigh)
5 thigh ring ( trochanter )
6 Hip ( coxa )
7 mesosternum
8 complex eye
9 antennae
10 head shield ( clypeus )
11 upper lip ( labrum )
12 buccula
13 antennae
14 throat ( gula )
15 suction and proboscis ( rostrum )
16 propleuron
17 mesopleuron
18 : opening of the scent glands
19 evaporation area
20 : Metapleuron
21 Urosternite
22 stigmata
23 Laterotergite
24 Gonapophyse
25 Pro notum
26 tag ( scutellum )
27 Clavus
28 corium
29 Embolium
30 membrane

Way of life of bedbugs

nutrition

Leather bug sucks on rhubarb

Bed bugs are mainly suckers of plant sap; However, there are also a number of predatory species or ectoparasites that suck blood like the bed bug ( Cimex lectularius ).

Reproduction and development

Leather bugs ( Coreus marginatus ) mating
Elasmucha grisea practices clutch and brood care

The individual types of bugs mate in different ways. The most unusual is that of the bed bugs , whereby the male assaults the female without advertising behavior and mates immediately. Sickle bugs sit on the females for hours and clasp them with their legs. Many stink bugs (Pentatomidae), fire bugs (Pyrrhocoridae), edge bugs (Coreidae) and stilt bugs (Berytidae) mate abdomen to abdomen . Net bugs (Tingidae) sit at right angles to each other. In bark bugs , the male sits among the females.

The females of several types of bedbugs have a well-trained ovipositor . The eggs are then bored into the soil or into parts of plants. Many species, on the other hand, only have a strongly reduced laying apparatus. These species bury the eggs or stick them to parts of plants, for example, in groups of usually 20 to 30 eggs. The females of the Mediterranean border bug Phyllomorpha laciniata often stick their eggs on the wings of the males. The females of some species add special balls of symbiotic bacteria to the egg packets. The newly hatched nymphs , for example the bullet bug Coptosoma scutellatum , suck it up. They are stored in a special midgut section . Several types of bedbugs practice brood care , for example the spotty brood bug ( Elasmucha grisea ). The eggs are guarded by the mother animals until the young hatch and for some time afterwards and are temporarily covered with the body. In the tropical predatory bug Triatoma flavida, the young suckle the mother. In case of danger, the nymphs turn their abdominal back with the scent glands towards the attacker.

Two -pointed bug nymph ( Picromerus bidens )
The soft bug Stenodema laevigata

During the development from embryo to adult ( imago ), bedbugs usually go through five nymph stages, separated by moults, without the pupal stage . This makes bed bugs hemimetabolic . The nymphs gradually become more and more similar to the adult animal.

Systematics of bedbugs

The system of bedbugs is not yet complete. In the past, the bugs were divided according to their way of life into the groups Hydrocorisae (water bugs), Amphibiocorisae (water striders) and Geocorisae (land bugs). There are now 23 subfamilies in the following seven sub-orders:

Fossil evidence

The oldest fossils of this insect order come from the Permian . Sediments of the Lias from Mecklenburg and Eocene / Oligocene Baltic amber provided a particularly rich fauna . The Heteroptera enclosed in amber are mostly terrestrial species; However, some forms from the sub-orders Nepomorpha and Gerromorpha , which predominantly live in water, have also been identified. Pond runners (Hydrometridae) were also found in Upper Cretaceous Burmit (about 100 million years old) and somewhat more recent ( Cenomanium , 85 million years old) French amber.

Bed bugs as pests

Above all, the predatory bugs (Reduviidae) are carriers of various diseases, for example Chagas disease , which is transmitted by Rhodnius species, among others . For information on the harmful effects of some species on humans and their function as vectors of disease, see Triatominae .

A few types of bugs can cause damage to crops when they occur in large numbers. The best-known include the Spitzling ( Aelia acuminata ) on grain, the berry bug ( Dolycoris baccarum ) on soft fruit or the cabbage bug ( Eurydema oleraceum ) on cabbage.

literature

Web links

Commons : Bugs  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heteroptera in Fauna Europaea , as of March 19, 2015.
  2. ↑ Müller: Textbook of Palaeozoology. Volume II, part 3, Jena 1978.
  3. ↑ Wichard, Gröhn, Seredszus: water insects in the Baltic amber. Remagen 2009. ISBN 978-3-941300-10-1 .
  4. ↑ Gröhn: inclusions in Baltic amber. Kiel / Hamburg 2015. ISBN 978-3-529-05457-0 .