Diagnosis and Specialized Morphology
Species of Tribelocephalinae are characterized by:
- densely tomentose on head, body, and veins of corium, making body surface obscured
- flattened eyes not projecting laterally and sometimes nearly contiguous dorsally
- absence of ocelli
- antennal scapus thickened and longer than head
- corium narrow and elongate with broad membrane area
Taxonomic History
The subfamily was first recognized by Stal (1866). Villiers (1943) divided Tribelocephalinae into two tribes: Opistoplatyini and Tribelocephalini. In 1996, Maldonado created a new tribe, Xenocaucini, that comprises two species.
Natural History/Biology
Species range from the Afrotropical region to the Oriental and Australian regions (Maldonado 1990, Redei 2007); no species occur in the New World except for Tibelocodia ashei Weirauch. Few specimens have been collected from leaf litter, but many are commonly collected from lights, suggesting that species are nocturnal (Schuh & Slater 1995).
Check out revisions of Tribelocephalinae and unlikely relationships with Ectrichodiinae here!
References
Maldonado, J. 1990. Systematic catalogue of the Reduviidae of the world (Insecta: Heteroptera). Caribb. J. Sci. Special Edition: 1-694.
Redei, D. 2007. A new genus of tribelocephaline assassin bugs from Borneo (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae). Zootaxa 1465: 47-53.
Schuh, R.T., Slater, J.A. 1995. True Bugs of the World (Hemiptera: Heteroptera): Classification and Natural History. Comstock Pub. Associates, Ithaca. 336 pp.
Stal, C. 1866. Analecta hemipterologica. Berlin. Entomol. Z. 10: 151-172.
Villiers, A. 1943. Morphologie et systematic des Tribelocephalitae africains. Revue Francaise d'Entomologie 10: 1-28.