ABSTRACT
The Reduviidae comprise one of the larger families of Heteroptera but are proportionally less represented north of the Rio Grande River than are some of the other heteropteran families. All forms, except for a few reports of early instars inserting their beaks in plant tissue, are predaceous. Habits of nymphs and adults appear quite similar except that some nymphs are unlike their adults in bearing on their body surface sticky hairs and the small flecks of material from their environment which adhere to these and conceal the body outline. Adults and nymphs are capable of making a rasping sound-stridulation by moving the tip of their beak back and forth in the cross-striated groove on their presternum. The bite of the latter, when well adapted to deriving a blood meal, causes no noticeable sensation in the victim and the bug can eat unmolested. In tropical America the Triatominae are vectors of American trypanosomiasis or Chagas’ disease.
