Morphology and Husbandry of the Large Milkweed Bug, Oncopeltus fasciatus

INTRODUCTION

The Hemiptera, or “true bugs,” are the most successful group of hemimetabolous (lacking a pupal stage) insects. The large milkweed bug Oncopeltus fasciatus fulfills many of the criteria often used when choosing a laboratory model system, including phylogenetic position, interesting character state, and practicality of care. Oncopeltus has a history of usefulness in the analysis of segmentation and cell polarity that precedes the more molecular approaches that are currently applied. This article presents an introduction to Oncopeltus as a laboratory model system.