Egg Morphology of the Leaf Hopper Assassin Bug Zelus renardii Kolenati, 1856 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae)

Zelus renardii Kolenati, 1856 (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Reduviidae) is a species of great importance as it is a predator and invasive species. The eggs of this species have previously not been studied in detail. In our study, eggs of Z. renardii were prepared separately for light and scanning electron microscopy examinations and observations were made separately. The cylindrical-shaped eggs were found to be ∼1.8 mm long and 0.5 mm wide. Eggs had slightly concave and convex sides. A cap region was located at the end of the egg. The operculum was located in the cap region. A micropylar opening was found in the middle of the operculum. The eggs had a white operculum and a brown chorion. The egg operculum surface had irregular pentagonal to hexagonal patterns. The operculum was ∼0.3 mm wide. Chorion layers were visible in eggshell sections taken from light microscopy preparations and in the samples broken for SEM. One of these layers was the outer columnar exochorion with air chambers between them, and the other was the inner, denser endochorion. This study provides the first detailed description of the egg morphology of Z. renardii, thereby making a significant contribution to the systematic research of the Reduviidae family.