Genus Ectobius

Ectobius Stephens 1835

4 spp. in our area (all adventive and all in the nominate subgenus), >70 spp. in 3 subgenera total(1)(2)

E. pallidus: yellow pronotum surrounded by a translucent rim:

E. sylvestris: Dark red to black pronotum with transparent to cream rim:

E. lapponicus: Dark brown pronotum with translucent rim:

Ootheca with keel rotated 90 degrees:

In E. pallidus and E. sylvestris the ventral margin of the front femora have three longer spines (just visible at the middle of the front femur in the image above) followed by a row of much shorter spines (look like fuzz in this image). In E. lapponicus (image below) there are only two of the larger spines on specimens examined thus far in North America.

native to the Old World

free-living spp. (do not inhabit buildings)

our only representative of the subfamily Ectobiinae, that contains a total of ~260 spp. in 9 genera(1)