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Enicocephalidae

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I thought this is a assassin bug so i just look at few shots and move on. Later my friend told me this could be a Enicocephalidae, a poorly studied and poorly documented group of insects! Taken in Singapore forest at night.

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Enicocephalomorpha
Features of this seldom seen group of true bugs have not figured prominently–if at all–in many classificatory schemes of the Heteroptera, or their morphology was incompletely appreciated, leading to their placement with the Reduviidae, the latter being members of the infraorder Cimicomorpha. Nonetheless, the Enicocephalomorpha have come to occupy the pivotal basal position in current hypotheses of heteropteran phylogenetic relationships. The group is biologically interesting for its habit of forming single-sex mating swarms. It is through the observation of these swarms, or the attraction of individuals to lights, that the majority of known specimens have been collected. Most of the modern work on morphology and higher classification of the unique-headed bugs has been done by Pavel Stys.

Enicophalomorpha are diagnosed by the division of the head into anterior and posterior lobes by way of a postocular constriction. The foretibia is dilated, armed with 1 or 2 clusters of spiniform setae, and can be opposed with 1 or 2-segmented tarsus. The male genitalia are always symmetrical and possess paired genital plates similar to the condition seen in the Auchenorrhyncha. The female subgenital plate is formed of abdominal sternum 8 rather than 7, as is the case in all other Heteroptera.
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herofan135's avatar
Just wow, what a stunning little creature! :wow: