White-margined Burrower Bug - Sehirus cinctus [2]
Hemiptera » Heteroptera (True Bugs) »Pentatomoidea » Cydnidae (Burrowing Bugs)
Live adult burrowing bugs photographed at West Chicago Prairie, DuPage County, Illinois.
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White-margined Burrower Bug
Sehirus cinctus is a very common bug, albeit one that spends the majority of its time underground.

There are 13 genera and 43 species listed in the Family Cydnidae, which in early literature were classified as a subfamily of the Pentatomidae (stink bugs).  One diagnostic feature separating the families is the stout, hardened spines on the tibia of the Cydnidae (clearly visible in the above picture), which the Pentatomids lack (they have hair, but not spines). Another difference is the scutellum, which in the burrowing bugs does not extend to the tip of the abdomen. [1]

White-margined Burrower Bug - Sehirus cinctus
Cydnidae scutellum is triangular and does not reach the tip of the abdomen, as it does in the Pentatomidae.

References

  1. Ryan Smith, Ashley Holmes, University of Florida Entomology and Nematology ENY 4161/6166 Insect Classification, Literature-based key to Florida "burrowing bugs" (Heteroptera: Cydnidae)

  2. Bugguide.net, Sehirus cinctus

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