Just released: True Bugs of the World Second Edition

We are very pleased to announce that our latest title, True Bugs of the World (Hemiptera: Heteroptera): Classification and Natural History (Second Edition) by Randall T. Schuh & Christiane Weirauch was released at the beginning of this month and is now available to order for immediate shipping. This monumental volume consists of 800 pages, including 182 black & white photographs (SEMs) & illustrations and 32 colour plates.

Click the cover to go to the product page where you can find more information and order your copy

FEEDBACK ROM THE AUTHOR (Toby Schuh)

"It was a pleasure to finally receive an author copy of True Bugs.  The volume is beautifully printed and bound, a real credit to your choice of printers and binders.  It is a pleasure to have a book that will lay open to ANY page on first usage, a feature that all who use the volume as a reference, especially at the microscope will, will welcome.  The black and which drawings and SEM images came out beautifully.  Also, the color rendition in the 32 plates is as good as I have seen in any entomological book, and way better than most. Many thanks for your efforts in doing such a fine job."

FROM THE BACK COVER

    The First Edition of “True Bugs of the World” presented a comprehensive review of heteropteran biology, morphology, and classification down to the subfamily level.  In the intervening 24 years our knowledge of the Heteroptera has vastly increased. Almost 5000 new bug species have been described during this period, a 12–15% increase.  Two new families, Curaliidae and Meschiidae, have been described, and the categorical rank of multiple family-group taxa has been revised. The use of cladistic methods through the application of more-user-friendly computer programs and of DNA-sequence data in phylogenetic analysis are now commonplace with a concomitant increase in our understanding of true-bug relationships.  The study of fossil Heteroptera has blossomed in a way not seen since the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Finally, a large body of literature now documents various aspects of the natural history of true bugs, ranging from chemical ecology to microbiomes, and establishing certain Heteroptera as model organisms for phenomena including aposematism, sexual conflict, and paternal care.  All of these factors argued for an updated volume summarizing our general knowledge of the true bugs.
    In preparing this Second Edition we have maintained an organization approach similar to that of the First Edition.  The introductory chapters deal with issues from a historical and functional perspective, the major alteration of format involving the coalescence into a single chapter of all material dealing with heteropteran natural history.  Following a key to infraorders, we present for the first time an extensive review of fossil Heteroptera. The systematics chapters, which comprise the remainder and preponderance of the work, focus almost exclusively on living Heteroptera.  Taxa are grouped by infraorder, superfamily, family, subfamily, and in some cases tribe.
    Following from the First Edition, we present diagnoses and information on the history of classification for suprafamilial taxa, all families, and for many subfamilies and tribes, as well as sections on Specialized Morphology, Natural History, and Distribution and Faunistics.  We continue to present information on numbers of described taxa.  The volume includes figures for general morphology and for details of structure in all family-group taxa, as well as 32 color plates of habitus images and 2 of living bugs; 3020 papers are cited, a 230% increase over the First Edition.  The majority of the newly cited papers have been published since 1993 when the literature search for the First Edition stopped. This seminal volume will appeal to anyone interested in Heteroptera, including for use as a general reference, specialized textbook, aid to family-group identification, and a gateway to the ever-expanding literature on the group.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

    Nearly 25 years have passed since the publication of the First Edition of “True Bugs of the World”.  In that time the body of knowledge concerning the Heteroptera has vastly increased, the technology and application of DNA sequencing have become commonplace, and the nature of scientific communication has undergone a virtual revolution.
    The First Edition of True Bugs cited just more than 1300 papers dealing with broad aspects as well as details of heteropteran classification, morphology, and biology.  We continue to cite nearly all of those papers because of the continuing historical importance of the included catalogs, major revisions, and seminal morphological works.  In the Second Edition we cite 3020 papers, a nearly 230 percent increase.  The majority of these newly-cited papers have been published since 1993 when the literature search for the First Edition stopped.  We estimate that nearly 5000 new bug species have been described during this period, a 12–15 percent increase.  Two new families, Curaliidae and Meschiidae, have been described and the categorical rank of multiple family-group taxa has been revised, particularly in the Lygaeoidea.  
    Knowledge of phylogenetic relationships within Heteroptera was being intensely studied as of the early 1990s, following on the heels of the “cladistic revolution”.  Yet, as Schuh & Slater (1995) observed, the classifications of several groups—most notably the Pentatomomorpha—still contained obviously paraphyletic assemblages.  Only one study (Wheeler, Schuh, & Bang, 1993) had applied DNA-sequence data to the understanding of phylogenetic relationships within the true bugs as of the publication of the First Edition. The use of cladistic methods through the application of more-user-friendly computer programs and of DNA-sequence data in phylogenetic analysis are now commonplace.  These approaches have been—and are being—applied across the range of heteropteran taxa, testing pre-existing hypotheses of relationships and greatly influencing many aspects of our understanding of relationships within the true bugs.  The study of fossil Heteroptera has blossomed in a way not seen since the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Finally, a large body of literature now documents various aspects of the natural history of true bugs, ranging from chemical ecology to microbiomes, and establishing certain Heteroptera as model organisms for phenomena including aposematism, sexual conflict, and paternal care.  All of these factors argue for an updated volume summarizing our general knowledge of the true bugs.
    In preparing the Second Edition we have maintained an organization approach similar to that of the First Edition.  The introductory chapters deal with issues from a historical and functional perspective, the major alteration of format involving the coalescence into a single chapter of all material dealing with heteropteran natural history.  Following the key to infraorders, we present for the first time in Chapter 10 a review of fossil Heteroptera, including tables of family-group and representative genus- species-group names.
    The systematics chapters, which comprise the remainder and preponderance of the work, focus almost exclusively on living Heteroptera.  The content of these chapters reflects the substantial rearrangements undergone in heteropteran classification, while at the same time maintaining the approach to organization of information seen in the First Edition.  Taxa are grouped by infraorder, superfamily, family, subfamily, and in some cases tribe.  The sequence of taxa within the text follows the results presented by Weirauch et al. (2018) down to and including the superfamily level.  Successive sister-group relationships are presented sequentially where published evidence exists for such an ordering.  Where no strong evidence exists for drawing such conclusions, we present family-group taxa in alphabetical order.  Whereas we provide diagnoses for all infraorders, superfamilies, families, and subfamilies, our approach for many tribal-level groupings is not consistent across all groups because of the varied size and taxonomic histories of the individual families.
    Following from the First Edition, we present diagnoses and information on the history of classification for suprafamilial taxa, all families, and for many subfamilies and tribes, as well as sections on Specialized Morphology, Natural History, and Distribution and Faunistics.  We continue to present information on numbers of described taxa.  Where possible these data are drawn from the latest primary sources, including catalogs.  We have compared our counts with those by Henry (2017) in an effort to present numbers that we believe are as accurate as possible.
    The intrusion of the Internet into scientific research since the preparation of the First Edition has been transformational.  Probably most obvious in our day-to-day lives is the use of email as the standard means of communication as opposed to the postal services.  Second is the universal use of computer software and the widespread use of cloud-based file sharing in the preparation of manuscripts.  Third is the widespread—if not universal—exchange of publications in electronic form rather than as paper copies, practices that have dramatically impacted our scientific libraries and the economic models of publication; they have also influenced our approach to preparing this volume.  Part and parcel of publication moving to electronic form is the widespread practice of “early on-line” posting of papers prior to their appearing in print.  Although we cite some papers based on their early on-line appearance, we have attempted to keep the Literature Cited as current as possible by using dates and page numbering from the printed volume in which papers ultimately appeared, the date sometimes lagging more than a year behind the early on-line appearance.
   The Internet has also had an integral place in the capture and dissemination of specimen information with the advent of collection databases (for type specimens, specimens examined, and museum collections more broadly) and their broad availability on the Internet.  These include ever-growing web portals such as Discover Life, GBIF, iDigBio, and Atlas of Living Australia that deliver vast amounts of specimen data to users worldwide.  All of this is coupled with the now universal use of high-resolution digital photography, a virtually unknown technology in 1993.
    Even in the face of these inexorable technological changes, we have chosen to offer the Second Edition of True Bugs in print format, believing that it provides the most durable approach to disseminating accumulated knowledge to professionals, students, and teachers.  We have nonetheless attempted to integrate approaches for access to information available in digital format throughout the volume in our efforts to bridge the print-digital divide.

About the Authors

Randall T. Schuh was born in Corvallis, Oregon, USA, on May 11, 1943.  As the son of an entomologist, he was exposed to the study of insects early in life.  He received his BS degree from Oregon State University, Corvallis, where he was influenced to study Heteroptera by the late John D. Lattin, MS from Michigan State University, and PhD from the University of Connecticut in 1971 under the direction of the late James A. Slater.  Dr. Schuh is George Willett Curator Emeritus of Entomology at the American Museum of Natural History, New York, where he began his professional career in 1974.  He has travelled and collected extensively in Australia, South Africa, South America, and western North America.  His research has focussed on the families Miridae and Saldidae (among other groups), phylogenetic and biogeographic relationships within the Heteroptera, and the documentation and analysis of host associations in phytophagous true bugs.  He has also been intimately involved in the digital revolution as it applies to systematic entomology, in the preparation of on-line systematic catalogs and the digitization of specimen data.

Christiane Weirauch was born in Gaildorf, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, on January 3, 1972.  She received her “Diplom” (MS equivalent) majoring in Biology with emphasis on Entomology from the Eberhard-Karls-Universität, Tübingen, Germany and her PhD from the Freie Universität Berlin.  Having been fascinated by the biodiversity and evolution of species rich groups of animals since childhood, both her MS thesis and PhD dissertation focused on Reduviidae, the assassin bugs, the second largest family of true bugs.  Between 2003 and 2006, Dr. Weirauch was a postdoctoral research scientist at the American Museum of Natural History, conducting research on Miridae under the mentorship of Randall T. Schuh.  She joined the University of California, Riverside faculty in 2007 and is now Professor of Entomology at that institution.  Her research focuses mostly on Reduvioidea, Miridae, and Dipsocoromorpha.  She has conducted field work in more than 20 countries and all biogeographic regions.  Her and her trainees’ studies aim on advancing understanding of comparative morphology, employ morphological and molecular datasets to generate robust phylogenetic hypotheses, and generate and consolidate natural history data layers in an attempt to trace the evolutionary history of various lineages within Heteroptera.  

CONTENTS

Dedication
Preface and Acknowledgments to the Second Edition

Chapter 1.  A History of the Study of the Heteroptera
Chapter 2.  Major Workers on the Heteroptera
Chapter 3.  Sources of Information
Chapter 4.  Collecting, Preserving, and Documenting
Chapter 5.  Natural History of True Bugs
•    Habitat Types
•    Feeding Behaviors
•    Microbial Associates
•    Wing Polymorphism and Flightlessness
•    Defensive Strategies: Aposematism, Mimicry, and Camouflage
•    Reproductive Behaviors and Strategies
Chapter 6.  Invasive and Economically Important Heteroptera
Chapter 7.  Historical Biogeography
Chapter 8.  General Morphology

Systematics
Chapter 9.  HETEROPTERA: Diagnosis, Key to Infraorders
Chapter 10.  Fossil Heteroptera

Chapter 11.  Nepomorpha
    Chapter 12.  NEPOIDEA
        Chapter 13.  Belostomatidae
        Chapter 14.  Nepidae
    Chapter 15.  OCHTEROIDEA
        Chapter 16.  Gelastocoridae
        Chapter 17.  Ochteridae
    Chapter 18.  CORIXOIDEA
        Chapter 19.  Corixidae
    Chapter 20.  CIBARIOPECTINATA
        Chapter 21.  Potamocoridae
    Chapter 22.  NAUCOROIDEA
        Chapter 23.  Aphelocheiridae
        Chapter 24.  Naucoridae
    Chapter 25.  NOTONECTOIDEA
        Chapter 26.  Notonectidae
        Chapter 27.  Helotrephidae
        Chapter 28.  Pleidae

Chapter 29.  Gerromorpha
    Chapter 30.  MESOVELOIDEA
        Chapter 31.  Mesoveliidae
    Chapter 32.  HEBROIDEA
        Chapter 33.  Hebridae
    Chapter 34.  HYDROMETROIDEA
        Chapter 35.  Hydrometridae
        Chapter 36.  Macroveliidae
        Chapter 37.  Paraphrynoveliidae
    Chapter 38.  GERROIDEA
        Chapter 39.  Hermatobatidae
        Chapter 40.  Gerridae
        Chapter 41.  Veliidae

Chapter 42.  Dipsocoromorpha
        Chapter 43.  Trichotonannidae
        Chapter 44.  Ceratocombidae
        Chapter 45.  Dipsocoridae
        Chapter 46.  Stemmocryptidae
        Chapter 47.  Hypsipterygidae
        Chapter 48.  Schizopteridae
        
Chapter 49.  Enicocephalomorpha
        Chapter 50.  Aenictopecheidae
        Chapter 51.  Enicocephalidae

Chapter 52.  GEOHETEROPTERA
Chapter 53.  Leptopodomorpha
    Chapter 54.  LEPTOPODOIDEA
        Chapter 55.  Leptopodidae
        Chapter 56.  Omaniidae
    Chapter 57.  SALDOIDEA
        Chapter 58.  Aepophilidae
        Chapter 59.  Saldidae

Chapter 60.  TERHETEROPTERA
    Chapter 61.  Cimicomorpha
    Chapter 62.  REDUVIOIDEA
        Chapter 63.  Pachynomidae
        Chapter 64.  Reduviidae
    Chapter 65.  Chapter MICROPHYSOIDEA
        Chapter 66.  Joppeicidae
        Chapter 67.  Microphysidae
    Chapter 68.  NABOIDEA
        Chapter 69.  Medocostidae
        Chapter 70.  Nabidae
        Chapter 71.  Velocipedidae
    Chapter 72.  CIMICOIDEA
        Chapter 73.  Anthocoridae
        Chapter 74.  Cimicidae
        Chapter 75.  Curaliidae
        Chapter 76.  Lasiochilidae
        Chapter 77.  Lyctocoridae
        Chapter 78.  Plokiophilidae
        Chapter 79.  Polyctenidae
    Chapter 80.  MIROIDEA
        Chapter 81.  Thaumastocoridae
        Chapter 82.  Miridae
        Chapter 83.  Tingidae

Chapter 84.  Pentatomomorpha
    Chapter 85.  ARADOIDEA
        Chapter 86.  Aradidae
        Chapter 87.  Termitaphididae
    Chapter 88.  TRICHOPHORA
    Chapter 89.  IDIOSTOLOIDEA
        Chapter 90.  Henicocoridae
Chapter 91.  Idiostolidae
    Chapter 92.  PENTATOMOIDEA
        Chapter 93.  Acanthosomatidae
        Chapter 94.  Canopidae
        Chapter 95.  Cydnidae
        Chapter 96.  Dinidoridae
        Chapter 97.  Lestoniidae
        Chapter 98.  Megarididae
        Chapter 99.  Pentatomidae
        Chapter 100.  Phloeidae
        Chapter 101.  Plataspidae
        Chapter 102.  Saileriolidae
        Chapter 103.  Scutelleridae
        Chapter 104.  Tessaratomidae
        Chapter 105.  Urostylididae
    Chapter 106.  PYRRHOCOROIDEA
        Chapter 107.  Largidae
        Chapter 108.  Pyrrhocoridae
    Chapter 109.  COREOIDEA
        Chapter 110.  Alydidae
        Chapter 111.  Coreidae
        Chapter 112.  Hyocephalidae
        Chapter 113.  Rhopalidae
        Chapter 114.  Stenocephalidae
    Chapter 115.  LYGAEOIDEA
Chapter 116.  Artheneidae
Chapter 117.  Berytidae
        Chapter 118.  Blissidae
        Chapter 119.  Colobathristidae
        Chapter 120.  Cryptorhamphidae
        Chapter 121.  Cymidae
        Chapter 122.  Geocoridae
        Chapter 123.  Heterogastridae
        Chapter 124.  Lygaeidae
        Chapter 125.  Malcidae
        Chapter 126.  Meschiidae
        Chapter 127.  Ninidae
        Chapter 128.  Oxycarenidae
        Chapter 129.  Pachygronthidae
        Chapter 130.  Piesmatidae
        Chapter 131.  Rhyparochromidae

Literature Cited
Glossary
Index
About the Authors
Color plates