The Department of Life Sciences

Phylum: Arthropoda  Class: Insecta  Order: Hemiptera

Commonly known as the true bugs this order contains over 80,000 described species. They all have sucking mouthparts which they mainly use to feed on plant sap although some feed on animals. This order includes shield bugs, aphids, cicadas, froghoppers, water bugs, leafhoppers and water striders.

For more information on hemipterans in general click here

Trinidad & Tobago Hemiptera

There is a high diversity of the true bugs in T&T, noisy cicadas are widespread in the forests and shield bugs are found in gardens whilst giant water bugs swim in ditches and ponds. Various papers have been written on genuses and families including a paper by UWI lecturer Mary Alkins-Koo titled The Water Bugs of Trinidad & Tobago

For profiles of selected species click here​

UWIZM Collections

In the museum there are two cabinets from the CABI collection and three cabinets from UWI/ICTA. Many have been collected as part of crop pest studies from as early as the 1920s.

Over 30 families are represented including: Anthocoridae, Aradidae, Belostomatidae, Cercopidae, Cicadidae, Cixiidae, Coreidae, Corixidae, Cydnidae, Delphacidae, Derbidae, Flatidae, Gerridae, Hydrometridae, Issidae, Jassidae, Lygaeidae, Membracidae, Mesovellidae, Miridae, Mononychidae, Nabidae, Naucoridae, Nepidae, Notonectidae, Pentatomidae, Phymatidae, Pyrrhocoridae, Reduviidae, Saldidae, Tingitidae, Veliidae

Drawer of cicadas from UWI collection                  

Leaf-footed bugs (Anisoscelis hymeniphera)

Last updated 22 June 2018