Size: 7 - 30mm
Identification: Oval to oblong in shape, black or brown with bright warning colours.
Assassin bugs belong to the family Reduviidae, the largest in the order Hemiptera with about 7 000 species. Of these, 450 are found in South Africa. While many assassin bugs are little more than a few millimetres in length, a few can be exceptionally large, reaching about 4cm. Many are winged and capable of flight. As predatory insects go, assassin bugs are fearsome and voracious hunters justly deserving of their name.
They are highly agile, respond quickly to movement and are ever on the lookout for the next meal. Most assassin bugs either lie in wait to ambush prey, or actively run it down with a series of jerky sprints. When they detect prey in reasonable range, they grasp it with a pair of jack-knife limbs. These have small ‘adhesive’ pads covered with thousands of tiny hairs and coated with a thin film of oil. The pads grip the victim like glue.
Some assassin bugs have evolved very sticky pads indeed, and are capable of holding insects the size of bees, which are very powerful.
Paralysing, deadly saliva
Once the prey is firmly in its grasp, the assassin bug injects a potent enzyme-laden saliva that first attacks the central nervous system and then the muscles. The saliva renders the victim immobile, then begins to digest its body tissue.