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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » True Bugs, Cicadas, Hoppers, Aphids and Allies (Hemiptera) » True Bugs (Heteroptera) » Cimicomorpha » Assassin Bugs (Reduviidae) » Thread-legged Bugs (Emesinae)

Subfamily Emesinae - Thread-legged Bugs

Classification · Synonyms and other taxonomic changes · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Size · Identification · Range · Habitat · Food · See Also · Works Cited

Stenolemus Assassin Bug - Stenolemus - Stenolemus

Leavenworth Stilt-legger - Barce fraterna - female

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 Emesinae (Thread-legged Bugs)

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

revised in (1)

treated as a separate family (Ploiariidae) in (2)

Explanation of Names

Emesinae Amyot & Serville 1843

Numbers

>60 spp. in 14 genera in our area(3), >1,000 spp. in ~100 genera total(4)

Tribe Emesini: Emesa (1) · Gardena (2) · Stenolemoides (1) · Stenolemus (4)

Tribe Leistarchini: Ploiaria (14)

Tribe Metapterini: Barce (6) · Metapterus (6) · Pseudometapterus (3) · Emesaya (5) · Ghilianella (1) · Pseudometyapterus (3) · Ischnonyctes (1)

Tribe Ploiariolini: Emesopsis (1) · Empicoris (14)

Size

3‒40 mm, usually <10 mm(5)(6)

Identification

Unlike walking-sticks and some dipterans they mimic, the Emesinae walk on the rear four legs: the front legs are modified for grasping prey(1)

the 1925 revision(7) is still usable; most eastern spp. are covered in (8)

Range

worldwide

Habitat

Barns, cellars and old buildings; beneath loose bark, in tufts of grass or brush piles; largely nocturnal, some live in spider webs(2)(9)(5)(6)

Food

other insects or spiders; some steal prey from spider webs(5)(9)(1)

See Also

Hydrometridae ▪ Berytidae ▪ Ranatra ▪ Phasmida ▪ Limoniidae

Works Cited

1.	A monograph of the Emesinae (Reduviidae, Hemiptera) Pedro W. Wygodzinsky. 1966. New York : [American Museum of Natural History].

2.	A Field Guide to Insects Richard E. White, Donald J. Borror, Roger Tory Peterson. 1998. Houghton Mifflin Co.

3.	Catalog of the Heteroptera, or True Bugs of Canada and the Continental United States Thomas J. Henry, Richard C. Froeschner. 1988. Brill Academic Publishers.

4.	Catalogue of Life

5.	Borror and DeLong's Introduction to the Study of Insects Norman F. Johnson, Charles A. Triplehorn. 2004. Brooks Cole.

6.	Biodiversity of the Heteroptera Henry T.J. 2009. In: Foottit R.G., Adler P.H., eds. Insect biodiversity: Science and society. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell: 223−263.

7.	Revision of the American bugs of the reduviid subfamily Ploiariinae McAtee W.L., Malloch J.R. 1925. Proc. U.S.N.M. 67: 1-135.

8.	The Reduviidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) of Alabama, with a morphological key to species Clem C.S., Swanson D.R., Ray C.H. 2019. Zootaxa 4688: 151–198.

9.	Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America Eric Eaton, Kenn Kaufman. 2006. Houghton Mifflin.

Contributed by Troy Bartlett on 16 February, 2004 - 12:32pm
Additional contributions by Mike Boone, cotinis, Bradshaw, v belov
Last updated 11 June, 2024 - 8:02pm

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