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Assassin Bug

Polytoxus fuscovittatus (Stal)

Description:

A generalist predator. Polytoxus fuscovittatus is easily distinguished by the three spines on the thorax. The lateral spines on the apex of the pronotum are about half the length of its pronotum, whereas the apical spine on the scutellum is outwardly and upwardly curved. Its head is shorter than the pronotum and has a transverse suture near the eyes. The pronotum is brownish black medially and reddish at both margins; the beak is 3-segmented. The legs of the assassin bug are yellowish except for the brownish black apices of the femora that are also tinged with red-orange. The bases of the tibia are light red-orange and the tarsi have black apices.

Habitat:

They are solitary predators of lepidopterous larvae. They can attack prey larger than themselves by piercing its body with their needle- like mouth parts.

Notes:

At the backyard.

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Dona Dela Cruz
Spotted by
Dona Dela Cruz

Pangasinan, Philippines

Spotted on Oct 28, 2010
Submitted on Mar 22, 2016

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