San Francisco Apartment Dweller - Trogium pulsatorium

HomeGuideID RequestRecentFrassForumsDonateHelp

Clickable Guide

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Registration is open for the 2024 BugGuide gathering in Idaho July 24-27

Moth submissions from National Moth Week 2023

Photos of insects and people from the 2022 BugGuide gathering in New Mexico, July 20-24

Photos of insects and people from the Spring 2021 gathering in Louisiana, April 28-May 2

Photos of insects and people from the 2019 gathering in Louisiana, July 25-27

Photos of insects and people from the 2018 gathering in Virginia, July 27-29

Previous events

TaxonomyBrowseInfoImagesLinksBooksData

Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Barklice, Booklice, and Parasitic Lice (Psocodea) » Trogiomorpha » Atropetae » Granary Booklice (Trogiidae) » Trogium » Larger Pale Booklouse (Trogium pulsatorium)

Photo#953632

Copyright © 2014 FriscoBug

San Francisco Apartment Dweller - Trogium pulsatorium

San Francisco, San Francisco County, California, USA
July 5, 2014
Size: 2-3 mm

Found it crawling around the baseboard in a third-floor apartment. Originally thought it was a bedbug nymph, but inspector found no other evidence of bedbugs and stated that the head looked wrong. Inspector couldn't tell us what it might be. Can any of you?

Thanks!

Notes:
- Color is actually a very light brown.
- Abdomen has light horizontal stripes (or is maybe just segmented).
- Antennae appear to be slightly shorter than the body.
- Appears to have six legs (front of abdomen, mid-thorax, front of thorax?)
- Background is cardboard from a tissue box.
- We think we found one other similar bug, but can't find it now.
- We've been getting small bedbug-like bites for months but also sometimes have mosquitos and haven't seen this bug before today.

tag · login or register to post comments

Contributed by FriscoBug on 9 July, 2014 - 11:33am

i wish the pic were sharper but keeping it in the guide anyway

Moved from ID Request.

… v belov, 9 July, 2014 - 12:17pm

Superorders?

Y'all are amazing.

Out of curiosity, I looked up Trogium pulsatorium online and found it on Wikipedia listed under the superorder Psocoptera. Is there a particular reason this isn't listed here under its superorder, or are superorders just generally not worth listing?

… FriscoBug, 9 July, 2014 - 2:00pm

any number of classifications exist in various sources

on this site we follow(1) as the most authoritative; in general, Wikipedia is not a reliable source of taxonomic information... or historical, for that matter

… v belov, 9 July, 2014 - 2:13pm

more likely the cosmopolitan Trogium pulsatorium

totally incapable of biting

… v belov, 9 July, 2014 - 12:16pm

ID confirmed by E.L. Mockford

… v belov, 5 September, 2014 - 5:23pm

Well... At least I got the Suborder right

EDIT: A second look reveals that I wasn't even that close. Sheesh!

… Ken Wolgemuth, 9 July, 2014 - 12:21pm

Booklouse, I reckon

Something like this:

Welcome to BugGuide!

… Ken Wolgemuth, 9 July, 2014 - 11:41am

Disclaimer: Dedicated naturalists volunteer their time and resources here to provide this service. We strive to provide accurate information, but we are mostly just amateurs attempting to make sense of a diverse natural world. If you need expert professional advice, contact your local extension office.

Contributors own the copyright to and are solely responsible for contributed content.
Click the contributor's name for licensing and usage information.
Everything else copyright © 2003-2024 Iowa State University, unless otherwise noted.

Bugguide is hosted by:

Printer Friendly Version