Rhopalidae, or scentless plant bugs, are a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

true bug Hemiptera (; ) is an order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising more than 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, assassin bugs, bed bugs, and shield bugs. They range in size from to a ...

s. In older literature, the family is sometimes called "Corizidae". They differ from the related coreids in lacking well-developed

scent gland Scent gland are exocrine glands found in most mammals. They produce semi-viscous secretions which contain pheromones and other semiochemical compounds. These odor-messengers indicate information such as status, territorial marking, mood, and se ...

s. They are usually light-colored and smaller than the coreids. Some are very similar to the orsilline lygaeids, but can be distinguished by the numerous veins in the membrane of the

hemelytra An elytron (; ; : elytra, ) is a modified, hardened forewing of beetles (Coleoptera), though a few of the true bugs (Hemiptera) such as the family Schizopteridae are extremely similar; in true bugs, the forewings are called hemelytra (sometimes ...

. They live principally on weeds, but a few (including the

boxelder bug ''Boisea'' is the least speciose genus of the soapberry bug subfamily. Members of this genus are found in North America, India, and Africa. Unlike other serinethine genera, the distribution of ''Boisea'' is very patchy; it is speculated that it ...

) are

arboreal Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally (scansorial), but others are exclusively arboreal. The hab ...

. All are plant feeders. The type genus for the family is: ''

Rhopalus ''Rhopalus'' is a genus of true bugs in the family Rhopalidae, the scentless plant bugs, recorded mostly from the Palaearctic realm: western Europe through to temperate and subtropical East Asia. Species The Global Biodiversity Information Facil ...

''. Currently 30 genera and over 240 species of rhopalids are known. The oldest fossil rhopalids described are from the

Middle Jurassic The Middle Jurassic is the second Epoch (geology), epoch of the Jurassic Period (geology), Period. It lasted from about 174.1 to 161.5 million years ago. Fossils of land-dwelling animals, such as dinosaurs, from the Middle Jurassic are relativel ...

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of China. Its border includes two-thirds of the length of China's China–Mongolia border, border with the country of Mongolia. ...

, discovered from the

Haifanggou Formation The Haifanggou Formation (), also known as the Jiulongshan Formation (), is a fossil-bearing rock deposit located near Daohugou () village of Ningcheng County, in Inner Mongolia, northeastern China. The formation consists of coarse conglomerates ...

. They are not considered economically important with a few species being pests of ornamental trees.

References

External links

Rhopalidae of Britain
Corizus hyoscyami IMG 2579

Coreoidea Heteroptera families {{Coreoidea-stub