Order Hemiptera

Characteristics of the order Hemiptera:

• Mouthparts adapted for piercing and sucking (the rostrum).
  • labium forms a segmented sheath enclosing slender hairlike deriviatives of the mandibles and maxillae. External manifestations of mandibles and maxillae otherwise absent.
  • cibarium developed as a sucking pump.
  • palpi lacking.
• Reduction of number of tarsal articles (3 or fewer, in common with related orders Psocoptera, Pthiraptera and Thysanoptera).
• Reduction in number of antennal flagellomeres (usually 10 or fewer).
• Thoracic sterna reduced.
• Cepahalization of the nervous system, the ganglia being reduced to 3 or fewer aggregations in the head and anterior thorax.

Classification of Hemiptera

Aphids of British Columbia: last update 1998-09-28
Direct comments or questions about this site to Eric Maw (mawe@em.agr.ca).
For questions about the project, contact Robert Foottit (foottitrg@em.agr.ca).