Notes from Halibut Point: True Bugs

Sunday, October 31, 2021

True Bugs

Dear Readers,

All through this series of insect postings I've been skirting the word "bug", which is inescapably linked with "spray" and all small things creepy that fly or crawl. Actually, "bug" means something very specific to naturalists and "true bugs" refers not to loyalty or believability but to certain physical features.

My field guide catalogs eighteen orders, or major groups, of insects. Only one of these, the hemiptera, is technically comprised of "bugs". The hemiptera (Greek hemi 'half' + pteron 'wing') are distinguished by forewings that are leathery (protective) toward the base and membranous (better flight dynamics) toward the tip. Their sucking mouthparts separate them from beetles which are equipped with chewing mandibles and shell-like forewings that are held aside during flight rather than employed for propulsion. The hemipteran's two pairs of wings separate it from flies, of the order diptera (Greek di 'two' + pteron 'wing'), which have a single pair of observable wings.

To accurately grasp the meaning of True Bugs we have to go deeper into taxonomy. At one point "True Bugs" referred to the entire order hemiptera. However the term is now usually applied only to a subdivision of this order called heteroptera which have certain developmental and anatomical differences from other bugs. I give you these distinctions to try to stay in the good graces of entomologically fluent readers.

And now to some portraits. The photographs that follow show the astonishing diversity of "True Bugs" as they clamber through vegetation at Halibut Point. In successive Notes you will meet other relations in the order hemiptera.