Beak: hard mouth parts of animals such as those found on birds.
Entomologist: name for scientist who studies insects.
The insects that experts call bugs have many different body shapes, sizes and colors. However, the one thing they all have in common is a long slender beak shaped mouth part that looks like a straw. They use this beak to poke through plants and occasionally animal skin and suck out sap or blood.
Most true bugs have their front pair of wings partially hardened and only the tips clear, it looks like they have half a wing. Entomologists use this strange wing shape to give this group of insects their official name, “Hemiptera”, which means half wing in Greek. Their rear pair of wings is shorter than the front half wings and are completely clear except for the thin lines that run their length. These lines are called veins and strengthen the wing in flight and help provide folds to store the wing under the front wings when not flying.
Hemiptera also have antennae with very few joints (segments), usually about five. Their number of foot joints (tarsi) is also small with usually no more than three. All the other insect groups that look similar to Hemiptera, like cockroaches and some beetles, have much longer antennae and feet with more segments in them.
How true bugs are organized is shown in the diagram below. The order for all true bugs is Hemiptera which is divided into four suborders, Auchenorrhyncha, Coleorrhyncha, Heteroptera and Sternorrhyncha.
Adam Dolezal, Page Baluch. (2010, October 06). True Bug Characteristics. ASU - Ask A Biologist. Retrieved August 8, 2022 from https://askabiologist.asu.edu/true-bug-anatomy
Adam Dolezal, Page Baluch. "True Bug Characteristics". ASU - Ask A Biologist. 06 October, 2010. https://askabiologist.asu.edu/true-bug-anatomy
Adam Dolezal, Page Baluch. "True Bug Characteristics". ASU - Ask A Biologist. 06 Oct 2010. ASU - Ask A Biologist, Web. 8 Aug 2022. https://askabiologist.asu.edu/true-bug-anatomy