Arilus cristatus

Keep your eyes peeled for adult Wheel Bugs (Arilus cristatus, family Reduviidae) if you’re working among the branches of landscape trees and shrubs. The bugs are highly beneficial. They use their piercing-sucking mouthparts to extract the essence-of-insect from soft-bodied prey such as caterpillars and sawfly larvae. However, they may occasionally use their insecticidal equipment to deliver painful bites to people.

Adult Wheel Bug (Arilus cristatus, family Reduviidae) are now roaming landscapes and forests in southwest Ohio. The immatures (= nymphs) have been with us for some time lurking among the leaves of trees and shrubs on the hunt for soft-bodied insects.

Insects that belong to the Hemipteran family Reduviidae are collectively known as assassin bugs. The family includes over 160 species in North America, and all are meat-eaters. Immature assassin bugs are now lurking among the leaves of trees and shrubs in Ohio in search of prey.

It’s common for people to call all insects bugs. However, entomologists reserve the bug name for a specific group of insects that belong to the suborder Heteroptera (order Hemiptera). To emphasize the point, entomologists refer to these heteropteran insects as the true bugs which may imply we consider all other insects to be false bugs but that’s not true.

All "bugs" aren't bad. Entomologists call insects that belong to the suborder Heteroptera (order Hemiptera) the "true bugs" and insects belonging to the hemipteran family Reduviidae are collectively known as “Assassin Bugs.” The family includes over 190 species in North America and they are all meat-eaters. The common name for the family clearly describes how these predatory stealthy hunters make a living.

Insects belonging to the Hemipteran family Reduviidae are collectively known as “Assassin Bugs.” The family includes over 190 species in North America and they are all are meat eaters. The common name for the family clearly describes how these stealthy hunters make a living.