British Insects: the Families of Hemiptera
| British Insects: the Families of Hemiptera | |
= Naucocoridae.
Salient features of adults. Foraging under water (in well oxygenated, fast-flowing water).
Predacious (e.g., on larvae of mayflies and midges). Small; 8–10 mm long; fliers, or non-fliers (mainly); swimming and moving under water the right way up; relatively stout bodied. Head non-linear. Rostrum clearly separated ventrally from the prosternum by a sclerotized gula; 3 segmented. Antennae inserted underneath the head and much shorter than it, generally invisible from above; non-aristate. Ocelli absent. Scutellum relatively small. Fore-wings well developed, or conspicuous, but much shorter than the abdomen (usually); in the resting insect lying more or less flat over the abdomen; when macropterous, differentiated into a basally thickened and a distally membranous region. Fore-legs non-raptorial. Hind coxae mobile; hinged. The abdomen without a respiratory siphon.
Comments. Flattened, oval bugs, with head as broad as long; fore-legs non-raptorial; only the hind-legs with fringes of hairs for swimming.
Taxonomy. Suborder Heteroptera; Notonectoidea.
British representation. Genera 1; 1 species.
The interactive key offers full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. British insects: the families of Hemiptera. Version: 9th April 2007. http://delta-intkey.com’.