Rhopalidae

Rhopalidae
Temporal range: Jurassic–Recent
Rhopalus subrufus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Suborder: Heteroptera
Superfamily: Coreoidea
Family: Rhopalidae
Amyot and Serville, 1843
Subfamilies

Rhopalinae
Serinethinae

Rhopalidae, or scentless plant bugs, are a family of true bugs.[1] In older literature, the family is sometimes called "Corizidae". They differ from the related coreids in lacking well-developed scent glands. They are usually light-colored and smaller than the coreids. Some are very similar to the orsilline lygaeids, but can be distinguished by the numerous veins in the membrane of the hemelytra. They live principally on weeds, but a few (including the boxelder bug) are arboreal. All are plant feeders. The type genus for the family is: Rhopalus. Currently 30 genera and over 240 species of rhopalids are known.[2] The oldest fossil rhopalids described are from the Middle Jurassic of Inner Mongolia, discovered from the Haifanggou Formation.[3] They are not considered economically important with a few species being pests of ornamental trees.[4]

  1. ^ Henry, Thomas J. (1988). "Family Rhopalidae". In Henry, Thomas J.; Froeschner, Richard C. (eds.). Catalog of the Heteroptera, or True Bugs, of Canada and the Continental United States. Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill. pp. 652–664. ISBN 978-0-916846-44-2.
  2. ^ Rhopalidae in GBIF Secretariat (2023). "GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset". GBIF Secretariat. doi:10.15468/39omei. Retrieved 2020-11-05.
  3. ^ Yao, Yunzhi; Wanzhi Cai; Dong Ren (2006). "The first discovery of fossil rhopalids (Heteroptera: Coreoidea) from Middle Jurassic of Inner Mongolia, China". Zootaxa. 1269: 57–68. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.1269.1.5.
  4. ^ Schaefer, Carl; Kotulski, Jill (2000). "Scentless Plant Bugs (Rhopalidae)". In Schaefer, Carl W.; Panizzi, Antonio Ricardo (eds.). Heteroptera of Economic Importance. CRC Press. p. 310. ISBN 978-0849306952. Scentless plant bugs are not of great importance.