The Wheel Bug Arilus gallus (Hemiptera: Reduviidae): Life History and Description of Immature Stages

The wheel bug Arilus gallus Stal (Hemiptera: Reduviidae) is a native American assassin bug that has been recorded preying on insect pests of coffee in Colombia. To provide information to support conservation biological control using this species, life-history parameters for A. gallus were investigated. Arilus gallus was reared under laboratory conditions at Cenicafe, on Galleria mellonella Linnaeus (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) as prey. All immature stages are described and illustrated for the first time. To obtain fecundity parameters, we used 1,818 eggs of the first generation (F1) oviposited from 19 pairs of adults. The mean number of eggs per female was 182.53 ± 7.15, derived from a mean of 1.68 egg masses per female. The egg incubation period was 27.52 ± 1.15 days; egg hatch rate was 80.66%; mean duration from egg to adult was 112.46 ± 5.5 days; and rate of survival to the adult stage was 9.69%. The longevity of adults was 109.66 ± 10.41 days for females and 89.4 ± 8.74 for males. The five immature instars can be distinguished by differences in several anatomical features, including the progressive increase in body size and the color of the abdomen and legs.