ABSTRACT
The common name for members of Phymatidae Laporte family was earned by the insects’ habit of lying concealed, generally in flowers, and waiting until some appropriate-sized insect comes within reach of the grasping front legs. The prey, varying from tiny frail flies through bees up to medium-sized butterflies and moths, is selected as appropriate for each developmental stage of the ambush bugs. The following year Balduf evaluated the economic importance of the same species, basing his conclusions on observations of over 800 feedings on seven orders of insects; he decided the ambush bug “should neither be destroyed nor promoted because its injuries appear to have been almost entirely cancelled by its good services.” The matter rests on evaluation of the Old World genus Themonocoris Carayon et al., which some authors accept as a connecting link between the traditional Phymatidae and Reduviidae, while others consider it simply a primitive subfamily of Phymatidae.
