| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: 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 conspicuous, but much shorter than the abdomen (in Britain). Fore-legs non-raptorial. Hind coxae mobile; hinged. The abdomen without a respiratory siphon.
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. 1 species in Britain (A. aestivalis); genera 1. Aphelocheirus.
Illustrations. • Aphelocheirus aestivalis (Southwood & Leston). • Aphelocheirus and other aquatic bugs (Southwood & Leston). • Aphelocheirus aestivalis, with Miridae,Ilyocoris and Nepa: Saunders, 1892.. MIRIDAE. 1, Psallus rotermundi Schultz., = ? 2, Plagiognathus albipennis; 3, Plagiognathus arbustorum. 4, Salicarius roseri. 5, Monosynamma bohemanni. 6, Plagiognathus saltitans. 7, Asciodema fieberi. NAUCOCORIDAE. 8, Ilyocoris cimicoides. APHELOCHEIRIDAE. 9, Aphelocheirus aestivalis f. montandoni. NEPIDAE. 10, Nepa cinerea. From Saunders (1892).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, 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. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hemiptera. Version: 27th July 2019. delta-intkey.com’.
