Egg Guarding by Male Assassin Bugs of the Genus Zelus(Hemiptera: Reduviidae)

Sporadic accounts of parental care of offspring in the HemipteraHeteroptera have appeared in the literature and are summarized by Hussey (1934) and Odhiambo (1959). In all but one or two of these cases only the female guards the brood; the only well documented exception is the reduviid Rhinocaris albopilosus in which only males guard the broods (Odhiambo, 1959). The present paper is a summary of observations on the form and function of brood guarding behavior of a reduviid species (Zelus sp.) in which males guard the brood. My observations were made during January and February 1975, in the vicinity of Cali, Colombia in a dry tropical forest zone (Espinal and Montenegro, 1962). There the bugs are common in the outer branches of Pithecelobium dulce (Leguminosae), a tree locally known as the "chiminango." During the course of this study I observed approximately 60 different males with broods.