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Hemiptera, or true bugs, is an order of insects which contains some 80,000 described species of cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, shield bugs and others. They range in size from 1 mm to over 10 cm, and share a common arrangement of sucking mouthparts.

Hemipterans are hemimetabolous, meaning that they do not undergo metamorphosis between a larval phase and an adult phase. Instead, their young are called nymphs, and resemble the adults to a large degree, the final transformation involving little more than the development of functional wings (if they are present at all) and functioning sexual organs, with no intervening pupal stage as in holometabolous insects.

Most hemipterans are phytophagous, feeding on plant sap, such as aphids, scale insects and cicadas. A few, however, are parasites, feeding on the blood of larger animals. These include bedbugs and the kissing bugs of the family Reduviidae, which can transmit potentially deadly Trypanosoma infections. Others are predatores, feeding upon smaller insects.