Small bug

[peterbolson]

Is it possible to ID this. Found in grass, about 3mm body length.
It escaped before I could photograph it from any other angles.
Peter

[asheleaf]

its a nymph of one of the Meadow bugs but i couldn't tell you which one!

Ashe

[peterbolson]

Thanks Ashe
I want to start learning more about bugs & wondered about getting the CD version of Southwood & Leston which is only £25. Would this be a good idea or has anyone any better suggestions.
Thanks
Peter

[Laurence Clemons]

Try the Heteroptera recording scheme website wwww.hetnews.org.uk for further links.

[Pudding4brains]

No time (too lazy ) to translate all of it, but the links should be good.

The Bug in this topic being a Miridae be sure to check out the PBI website and the Digitized Faune de France available for download ...

Info on True Bugs

• (de)/(en) Belgian Miridae
• (nl) Belgian Coreidae
• (de) Einführung in die Biologie der Wanzen
• (de) natur-in-nrw.de Not many species yet, but good descriptions of those present.
• (de) wanzen-nrw.de - Wanzenwegweiser (Familienübersicht)
• (en) eny3005.ifas.ufl.edu - Hemiptera - Overview of some families and their main characters.
• (en) Wild about Denmark - True Bugs
• (en) Flickr - British Bugs (Heteroptera only)
• (en) Uni. North Dakota - Pentatomoidea met o.a. Index of Host Plants
• (en) The ecology of Commanster - Aphids, Bugs and Hoppers
• (fr) Hemiptera Armoricana including Carpocoris-key with PDF-colorposter
• (fr) l'Atlas des hemipteres d'Aquitaine.
• (fr) Entomart - Heteroptera
• (fr) galerie-insecte.org Photo overview with about 800 snapshots and various ID-keys on the forum: Anatomietermen, Familie Key Pentatomoidea, Rhynocoris, Pygolampis and Sastrapada, Palomena, Linkpage.
• (it) Hobby-Key on an Italian forum. Extra: Carpocoris.
• ...

Downloads:

• (de) Identification Keys (as PDF) offered by the Zoologische Staatssammlung München: Rhopalidae (1MB) and Coreidae (800K)
• (de) Aglyamzyanov, Renat (2006) Revision der paläarktischen Arten der Gattung Lygus Hahn (Heteroptera, Miridae). Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades. Mainz: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität. - Including a new key to the genus Lygus (download PDF - 9MB).
• (en) Plant Bug Inventory (PBI) - Digital library with many PDFs: Systematic Catalog (search on author, taxon etc).
• (en) Douglas, John William (1865) The British Hemiptera. Vol. I. Hemiptera-Heteroptera (various formats at archive.org)
• (fr) Wagner, E; Weber, H.H. (1964) Hétéroptères MIRIDAE, Faune de France, vol 67. (Book for sale here). Downloadable as series of PDF's via PBI-site: Part 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 (about 7MB each).
• Handlirsch, Anton (1897) Monographie der Phymatiden Webpage w. scans of plates
• ...

[poschiavanus]

What a a marvellous list of resources. I'll be busy downloading tonight! I might even make progress on the notorious green ones. Thanks Pudding4brains.

I'd also add: Heteroptera Gallery at koleopterologie.de. A german site with many central European species. For the most part a superset of the fauna of GB & Ireland.

peterbolson: Southwood & Leston on CD is very useful. Some of the keys are out-of-date and others are annoying: Miridae starts by asking whether there is an ariola between the claws of the foot (and says is difficult). I've seen less demanding keys to this family. However, there is a lot of information about the biology, food-plants etc. Decent plates, but not a patch on photographs now available. I think the huge pluses are that it aimed for comprehensive coverage of the group, and that there is nothing to compare with it.

poschiavanus

[tristanba]

I'd second all the above. Not to plug another forum but Wild about Denmark has an excellent selection of Hets photos

True bugs - Wildaboutdenmark.com

PS Just noticed you have included it

[Pudding4brains]

Oops, bit annoyed I forgot to include the link to koleopterologie.de (the list is basically it's a copy/paste of something I compiled to add to another list that already included that fine site)

Having said that, there's probably loads of excellent sites/downloads missing as I have not yet really dug into Heteropterans - these are just some links I stumbled on by accident.

Thanks for the kind words though
Arp

[asheleaf]

my thanks also for all of the great links. I've saved them all

if anyone has an easier key to the Miridae than S&L i'd love to know about it.

cheers, Ashe

[asheleaf]

PS. I have found the the FSC Aidgap key to the families of British bugs by Dennis Unwin useful and its not too expensive either.

Ashe

[poschiavanus]

A caveat to Ashe's comment. I too have the FSC Unwin key, but the Het side is more-or-less the key from Southwood & Leston. This is also the basis for the key in one of Chinery's books. The real downside of the FSC key is that it is not that helpful for the homopterans,

There is a rather more user friendly field key to Miridae (i.e., excluding genera and species which require microscopic work) in Stresemann Exkursionsfauna Deutschland vol 2, but as one might expect it is in german! At least the first break is on the relative lengths of the tarsi on the hind limb. This is because it does not try to key out the sub-families.

poschiavanus

[peterbolson]

Many thanks for all the really useful replies I've had.
As a complete novice I think I'll start by getting the Southwood & Leston CD & supplement it with some of the marvellous photos & links on the internet.

Peter