List of hemipterans of Sri Lanka

Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera

The Hemiptera order of insects includes the insects commonly known as the true bugs. The order includes planthoppers, leafhoppers, shield bugs, cicadas, aphids. More than 70,000 species are distributed worldwide.[1] Most hemipterans are plant sap feeders, some are parasitic, while the rest are predators who attack small insects and small invertebrates. Most species are terrestrial and a few are aquatic. Hemipterans are hemimetabolous, where young are similar to adults in the morphology. Hemipterans are economically important insects, where most of them are agricultural pests and vertebrate parasites.[2]

The following list provide the hemipterans currently identified in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is known to be home for 794 species of hemipterans included to 71 families. Detailed work of Sri Lankan hemipterans are recorded in book Catalogue of Hemiptera of Sri Lanka.[3] Sri Lanka comprises 74 species in 46 genera and 6 families of aphids within order Hemiptera. Two endemic aphid species found on Sri Lanka. Many researches have been carried out by different hemipteran families by local and overseas experts.[4][5][6][7]

In 2009, M. Prashanthini and M. Vinobaba of Eastern University of Sri Lanka carried out experiments on mealybugs and identified 38 species of mealybugs from Sri Lanka with new exotic species.[8][9][10][11] Un updated systematic catalogue of cicadas of South Asia have been published in 2016. According to that, 22 species of cicadas were recorded from Sri Lanka.[12] Chopra and Rustagi in 2012 published the characters of the subfamily Chauliopinae from India and Sri Lanka.[13]

In 2012, B. Vasantharaj David compiled the checklist and diversity of whiteflies of Sri Lanka with new records of seven species and new Pealius species from Sri Lanka.[14] Fourteen species belonging to eight genera of soft scales were identified with two introduced species from Sri Lanka.[15] The provisional checklist of the Leafhoppers in Sri Lanka have been compiled by Dr. Rajendramani Gnaneswaran of the Department of Zoology, University of Jaffna. With her revision, 257 leafhopper species belonging to 120 genera have been identified from Sri Lanka.[16]