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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) » Harpactorinae » Harpactorini » Zelus

Genus Zelus

Rice bug or assasin bug? Stenocoris or Zelus? - Zelus luridus Stucco assassin needs ID - Zelus renardii Zelus renardii green predator - Zelus luridus Assassin Bug Nymph? - Zelus renardii Bug Nymph on Mesquite - Zelus tetracanthus Reduviid nymph - Zelus renardii Assassin bug? - Zelus luridus
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 Zelus
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
revised in (1) (subgenera no longer recognized); North American fauna (Canada to n. Mexico) reviewed in (2)
Explanation of Names
Zelus Fabricius 1803
in Greek mythology, Zelos was a minor deity, personifying zeal, rivalry and anger
Numbers
7 spp. in our area, >70 total(1)
Size
8-25 mm (most 11-18 mm)(1)
Identification
Telling apart Z. renardii, Z. cervicalis, & Z. tetracanthus from images alone may be problematic, but see discussion here(3)
key to our common spp. in (2)
Range
New World, mostly neotropical(1)
Food
wide range of insects; up to 40% of diet may consist of lepidopteran larvae including cotton bollworm, tobacco budworm, and pink cotton bollworm; beneficial predators, esp. in cotton, soybean, alfalfa crops and tree fruit(1)
Remarks
Predation strategy unique: the bugs secret sticky substances from unique dermal glands on front tibiae (a derived trait of Zelus?), which are smeared onto setae that resemble leaves of sundew(1)
NB: info on Z. exsanguis in two popular sources(4)(5) actually refers to Z. luridus (D.R. Swanson, pers. comm. to =v= 13.iii.2015)
Internet References
Discussion of 5 spp. in c. TX(3)
Works Cited
1.A taxonomic monograph of the assassin bug genus Zelus Fabricius (Hemiptera: Reduviidae): 71 species based on 10,000 specimens
Guanyang Zhang, Elwood R Hart, Christiane Weirauch. 2016. Biodiversity Data Journal 4: e8150 .
2.Genus Zelus Fabricius in the United States, Canada, and Northern Mexico (Hemiptera: Reduviidae)
Hart E.R. 1986. Ann. Ent. Soc. Am. 79: 535-548.
3.Austin bug collection
4.American Insects: A Handbook of the Insects of America North of Mexico
Ross H. Arnett. 2000. CRC Press.
5.How to Know the True Bugs
Slater, James A., and Baranowski, Richard M. 1978. Wm. C. Brown Company.
Contributed by Cotinis on 27 June, 2004 - 10:55am
Additional contributions by Bug Eric, Mike Quinn, Aaron Schusteff, v belov
Last updated 1 December, 2019 - 7:51pm

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