Spiny Assassin Bug

Media
Spiny assassin bug walking on a white napkin
Scientific Name
Sinea spinipes
Family
Reduviidae (assassin bugs) in the order Hemiptera (true bugs)
Description

The spiny assassin bug is one of nearly 200 species of assassin bugs in North America. It walks, hops, and flies to capture its insect prey. Adults are only about ½ inch long. Note the spiny legs. A key identifier, for separating this from the lookalike species S. diadema, are the relatively blunt (not spiny) tubercles on the front of the body, just behind the head. Learn more about the spiny assassin bug and other members of the assassin bug family on their family page.

Size
Length: about ½ inch.
Title
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Similar Species
About Land Invertebrates in Missouri
Invertebrates are animals without backbones, including earthworms, slugs, snails, and arthropods. Arthropods—invertebrates with “jointed legs” — are a group of invertebrates that includes crayfish, shrimp, millipedes, centipedes, mites, spiders, and insects. There may be as many as 10 million species of insects alive on earth today, and they probably constitute more than 90 percent all animal species.