True Bugs

The true bugs are a large and diverse group of about 35,000 species of insects in the order Hemiptera. About 44 families of bugs occur in North America. Bugs typically have a flattened body, and their folded wings cross over their thorax and abdomen, giving a distinctive, cross-like pattern.

Some species of true bugs are of great economic importance as pests of agricultural plants. A few species of bugs are vectors of important diseases of humans.

In popular usage, the word "bug" is often used to refer to non-hemipteran insects, and not only to "true bugs." When used to refer to a species in the Hemiptera, the "bug" part of the name should be written separately, as in: stink bug, or milkweed bug. When used to refer to non-hemipteran insects, the "bug" part of the name should be used to form a single word, as in: ladybug (a family of beetles, order Coleoptera), or mealybug (scale insects, order Homoptera), or sowbug (Crustaceans in the order Isopoda, which are not even insects).