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Genus Fitchia

Bug ID Please - Fitchia aptera Assassin Bug Lunch and tiny party crashers - Fitchia aptera Fitchia aptera Assassin Bug nymph?? - Fitchia aptera Reduviidae - Fitchia Fitchia Fitchia aptera Hemnipteran - Fitchia aptera
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hemiptera (True Bugs, Cicadas, Hoppers, Aphids and Allies)
Suborder Heteroptera (True Bugs)
Infraorder Cimicomorpha
Family Reduviidae (Assassin Bugs)
Subfamily Harpactorinae
Tribe Harpactorini
Genus Fitchia
Explanation of Names
Fitchia Stål 1859
Numbers
2 spp. in our area(1)
Size
~12-14 mm
Identification
The easiest field character for separating the two species involves the color of the integument surrounding the spiracle: concolorous pale in F. spinosula versus dark brown in F. aptera. Male parameres are distinctly clavate, as opposed to the slender, digitate parameres of F. aptera.
On average, F. spinosula tends to be a little longer and more slender than its congener. The pronotal armature is variable, and overlaps with F. aptera, but in F. spinosula, there are usually two submedial tubercles and a tubercle at each humeral angle.
Range
mostly e.NA to AZ-UT - Map (2)
Season
for NC, Brimley lists one F. aptera record (Sandhills, April) and F. spinulosa from several localities (Oct-Mar)(3)
Print References
McPherson, J.E., S.J. Taylor and S.L. Keffer. 1992. Evaluation of Characters to Distinguish Fitchia aptera and F. spinosula (Heteroptera: Reduviidae). The Florida Entomologist, 75(2): 222-230. (JSTOR)
Works Cited
1.American Insects: A Handbook of the Insects of America North of Mexico
Ross H. Arnett. 2000. CRC Press.
2.Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
3.Insects of North Carolina
C.S. Brimley. 1938. North Carolina Department of Agriculture.