Long Assassin Bug - Australcmena lineativentris

Family Reduviidae

This page contains pictures and information about Long Assassin Bugs that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.


Body length 20 and 25mm

This assassin bug is long and has slender body. It is brown in colour with find white patterns on body. Its wings and very long legs are dark brown in colour. There are the short spins on it thorax. Its has the typical small and long head with long and curved proboscis.



We found them once in Karawatha Forest on Acacia leaf during mid summer Jan 2008. There were two bugs, one on top of the other one.



They were not mating but we believed they were the engaged couple. The engagement is common in the animal world for those species which are rare and mates are hard to find. Once they find each other, even not the suitable time for mating, they just physically engaged and moved together.

Trevor Jinks sent us the following photos and we first thought it was a stick insect. Later Trevor found out it is the Long Assassin Bug nymph.


Photo thank to Trevor Jinks
Trevor write: " Its disguise is amazing, I bet not many people have ever spotted one in the wild. I only saw it because at the time it had a wing from some small insect which moved in the breeze and caught my attention.

Reference:
1. Australcmena lineativentris - lifeseen.com, by Nick Monaghan.
2. The generic classification of the Australian Harpactorinae (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) - Malipatil, M.B. 1991. Invertebrate Taxonomy 4: 935-971 (Australcnema lineativentris).
3. WELL CAMOUFLAGED TRUE BUG FROM AUSTRALIA IS LONG ASSASSIN BUG - Posted by bugman July 22nd, 2010, What's That Bug?