Genus Psytalla

The giant assassin bugs of Africa, and the largest assassins anyone keeps: armored, spike-shouldered ambush predators whose bite is the practical fact, genuinely painful, delivered through a rostrum built for liquefying prey, and worth forceps habits for the whole colony's life.

They keep communally with cover, warmth, and steady feeder supply, hunting with a deliberate theatricality that makes a colony one of the more watchable insect displays available. Spray defense is minor in this genus; the rostrum is the entire caution.

Captive breeding carries the market, since colonies produce steadily once established, and the economics run the standard colony arc: premiums on the giant species hold modestly, then ease as cultures spread. The genus trades as the flagship of the assassin shelf, priced on size and pattern, respected for the mouthparts.