assassin bug

noun

: any of a family (Reduviidae) of bugs that are usually predatory on insects though some (such as a kissing bug) suck the blood of mammals

called also reduviid

Illustration of assassin bug

Examples of assassin bug in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The Armando assassin bug was also found on cacao farms in a region of Colombia that has suffered lots of deforestation for agriculture and livestock, the researchers said. —Irene Wright, Miami Herald, 22 July 2024

Unlike squash bugs, assassin bugs are solitary critters, and they’re rarely seen in groups. —Lauren Landers, Better Homes & Gardens, 27 June 2024

That's because this is a white-eyed assassin bug. —cincinnati.com, 30 Apr. 2021

The creature was likely Triatoma infestans, a kissing bug—one of the almost 7,000 species of assassin bug that are now described. —Christie Wilcox, Discover Magazine, 21 Mar. 2018

Robert Jackson and Simon Pollard from the University of Canterbury have been studying a pretender with a much more gruesome disguise – the ant-snatching assassin bug Acanthaspis petax, which covers itself with the corpses of its own prey. —Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 4 Oct. 2010

Exploitation of environmental noise by an araneophagic assassin bug. —Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 5 Feb. 2012

Witness an assassin bug luring a spider to its doom with bad vibes. —Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 27 Dec. 2010

The assassin bug sucks up the soupy tissue and attaches the corpse to its back like a creepy backpack. —Holly Barker, Discover Magazine, 7 Oct. 2022

Word History

First Known Use

1890, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

assassin bug

noun

as·​sas·​sin bug ə-ˈsas-ᵊn- 

: any bug of the family Reduviidae compare conenose