Pentatomoidea Explained

The Pentatomoidea are a superfamily of insects in the suborder Heteroptera of the order Hemiptera. As hemipterans, they possess a common arrangement of sucking mouthparts.^[1] The roughly 7000 species under Pentatomoidea are divided into 21 families (16 extant and 5 extinct).^[2] Among these are the stink bugs and shield bugs, jewel bugs, giant shield bugs, and burrower bugs.^[3]

Description

The Pentatomoidea are characterised by a well-developed scutellum (the hardened extension of the thorax over the abdomen). It can be triangular to semielliptical in shape.^[2] The antennae typically have five segments. The tarsi usually have two or three segments.^[4]

Shield bugs have glands that produce a foul-smelling liquid, which is used defensively to deter potential predators. Nymphs have glands on the dorsal surface of the abdomen (dorsal abdominal scent glands). These are often present in adults as well, but adults also develop a pair of glands on the metathorax (third segment of the thorax), these being the metathoracic scent glands.^{[5] [6]}

The nymphs and adults have distinctive piercing mouthparts, with mandibles and maxillae modified to form a piercing "stylet" sheathed within a modified labium. The stylet is used to suck sap from plants, or in some cases to suck blood from other animals, such as in the predatory subfamily Asopinae.^[7]

Pentatomoidea are mostly phytophagous,^[8] although some (the Asopinae or predatory stink bugs) are zoophagous. They can become significant pests (e.g. the brown marmorated stink bug), causing economic damage to certain crops.

Families

These families are classified under Pentatomoidea:^[9]

Extant

• Acanthosomatidae – known as shield bugs, contains 46 genera and 184 species found worldwide^[10]
• Canopidae – found strictly in the Neotropical realm^[11]
• Cydnidae – known as burrowing bugs, it contains 120 genera and about 765 species worldwide.
• Dinidoridae – found in tropical Asia, Africa, Australia, and South America, composed of 16 genera and about 65 species^[2]
• Lestoniidae – small, round bugs that bear a resemblance to tortoise beetles (Chrysomelidae), composed only of one genus and two species, endemic to Australia^[12]
• Megarididae – contains only one extant genus (Megaris) and 16 species, small, globular bugs occurring in Central America^[13]
• Parastrachiidae – bright red and black bugs exhibiting maternal care of eggs, it contains only two genera: Dismegistus (Africa) and Parastrachia (Eastern Asia).^{[14] [15]}
• Pentatomidae – known as stink bugs, it is the largest family in Pentatomoidea. It contains around 900 genera and over 4700 species.
• Phloeidae – large mottled brown and flattened bugs found strictly in the Neotropical realm. It is composed on only 2 genera and 3 species. They are known to exhibit strong maternal care.^[11]
• Plataspidae – found in Asia, particularly eastern Asia, although a few species of Coptosoma occur in the Palearctic. They are round plant-feeding bugs. It has about 59 genera and 560 species.
• Saileriolidae – only recently removed from inclusion within Urostylididae.
• Scutelleridae – known as jewel bugs or shield-backed bugs. Composed of 81 genera and about 450 species.
• Tessaratomidae – known as giant shield bugs because they are usually relatively large. Has about 55 genera and 240 species worldwide (mainly in the Old World tropics).^{[16] [2] [17]}
• Thaumastellidae – small bugs usually found under rocks in tropical Africa and the Middle East. It contains only one genus and three species. There is some debate to their inclusion within Pentatomoidea.^[18]
• Thyreocoridae – includes the former family, subfamily Corimelaeninae ^[19] – known as ebony bugs, they are small, oval, shiny black bugs.^[20]
• Urostylididae – contains about 11 genera and 170 species. They are found in Southern and Eastern Asia.^[21]

Extinct

• †Mesopentacoridae Popov 1968 Middle Jurassic-Early Cretaceous, Asia
• †Primipentatomidae – family with about four Early Cretaceous fossil species from China.^[22]
• †Probascanionidae Handlirsch 1921 Monotypic, Early Jurassic, Germany
• †Protocoridae Handlirsch 1906 Early-Middle Jurassic, Eurasia
• †Venicoridae Yao et al. 2012 Early Cretaceous, China

Phylogeny

The morphological unweighted tree of Pentatomoidea after Grazia et al. (2008).^{[23] [24]}

See also

• List of shield bug species of Korea
• Pentatomomorpha
• Sunn pest

External links

• Stink Bug Fact Sheet from the United States National Pest Management Association

Notes and References

1. Web site: Hemiptera: bugs, aphids and cicadas. CSIRO. 14 January 2021.
2. Book: G. Cassis . Gordon F. Gross . Zoological catalogue of Australia: Hemiptera: Heteroptera (Pentatomomorpha). Csiro Publishing. 2002. 353. 978-0-643-06875-9.
3. Book: Capinera, John L. . 2008 . Encyclopedia of Entomology . 2nd . Heidelberg. Springer Science & Business Media . 608 . 978-1-4020-6242-1.
4. Book: T. N. Ananthakrishnan. General and applied entomology. Tata McGraw-Hill Education. 2004. 370. 978-0-07-043435-6.
5. KMENT . PETR . VILÍMOVÁ . JITKA . 2010 . Thoracic scent efferent system of Pentatomoidea (Hemiptera: Heteroptera): a review of terminology . Zootaxa . 2706 . 1 . 1 . 10.11646/zootaxa.2706.1.1 . 1175-5334.
6. Bianchi . Filipe Michels . Bottega . Cristiane . Campos . Luiz Alexandre . 2016 . Comparative morphology of the external scent efferent system of dorsal abdominal glands in nymphs of Pentatomidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) . Zoologischer Anzeiger - A Journal of Comparative Zoology . en . 263 . 66–74 . 10.1016/j.jcz.2016.04.006. 2016ZooAn.263...66B .
7. Li . Xinyu . Tian . Li . Li . Hu . Cai . Wanzhi . Ultrastructural Variations of Antennae and Labia Are Associated with Feeding Habit Shifts in Stink Bugs (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae) . Biology . November 2021 . 10 . 11 . 1161 . 10.3390/biology10111161 . free . 34827154 . en . 2079-7737. 8615146 .
8. Web site: Infraorder PENTATOMOMORPHA . 2023-10-30 . biodiversity.org.au . en.
9. Web site: Classification. David A. Rider. October 20, 2009. Department of Entomology, North Dakota State University. April 29, 2011.
10. Faúndez E. I. . 2009 . Contribution to the knowledge of the genus Acrophyma Bergroth, 1917 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Acanthosomatidae) . Zootaxa . 2137 . 57–65 . 10.11646/zootaxa.2137.1.7 .
11. P220 Randall T. Schuh, James Alexander Slater, True bugs of the world (Hemiptera:Heteroptera): classification and natural history, Cornell University Press, 1995,
12. P136 Christopher G. Morris Academic Press dictionary of science and technology, Gulf Professional Publishing, 1992,
13. Web site: Map of Megarididae . Discover Life .
14. Gengping Zhu . Guoqing Liu . Wenjun Bu . Jerzy A. Lis . amp . 2013. Geographic distribution and niche divergence of two stinkbugs, Parastrachia japonensis and Parastrachia nagaensis. Journal of Insect Science. 13. 102 . 10.1673/031.013.10201. 24738857. 4012745. 1–16.
15. Jerzy A. Lis . 2010 . Pretarsal structures in the family Parastrachiidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Pentatomoidea). Zootaxa. 2693. 60 - 62. 10.11646/zootaxa.2693.1.5 .
16. Book: Cedric Gillott. Entomology. Springer. 1995. 604. 978-0-306-44967-3.
17. >Book: Costa, James T. . The Other Insect Societies . Harvard University Press . Cambridge, Mass . 2006-09-30 . 0-674-02163-0 . ocm67345686 . 311.
18. P353 Zoological Catalogue of Australia
19. Book: Rider . David A. . Schwertner . Cristiano F. . Vilímová . Jitka . Rédei . Dávid . Kment . Petr . Thomas . Donald B. . Invasive Stink Bugs and Related Species (Pentatomoidea) . Higher Systematics of the Pentatomoidea . CRC Press . Boca Raton : Taylor & Francis, 2017. . 2018-01-17 . 978-1-315-37122-1 . 10.1201/9781315371221-2 . 25–202.
20. Web site: Family Thyreocoridae – Ebony Bugs. Mike Boone. September 11, 2004. BugGuide, Iowa State University. April 29, 2011.
21. Book: Foottit . Robert G. . Adler . Peter H. . Insect Biodiversity . Wiley-Blackwell . Oxford . 2009-04-20 . 978-1-4051-5142-9 .
22. 10.1080/14772019.2011.639814. Primipentatomidae fam. Nov. (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Pentatomomorpha), an extinct insect family from the Cretaceous of north-eastern China. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 11. 63–82. 2013 . Yao. Yunzhi . Cai . Wanzhi . Rider. David A.. Ren. Dong. 1 . 2013JSPal..11...63Y . 86753502.
23. Web site: Pentatomoidea. Dimitri Forero. March 13, 2009 . . April 28, 2011.
24. Jocelia Grazia . Randall T. Schuhb . Ward C. Wheeler . amp . 2008. Phylogenetic relationships of family groups in Pentatomoidea based on morphology and DNA sequences (Insecta: Heteroptera). Cladistics. 24. 6 . 10.1111/j.1096-0031.2008.00224.x. 932–976. Wiley-Blackwell. 34892882 . 41951432 . April 27, 2011.