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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hemiptera |
Brachyrhinchidae, Dysodiidae. Including Aneuridae
Flatbugs, Bark Bugs.
Salient features of adults. Terrestrial.
Mycophagous (often in plant litter, under bark, in bracket fungi, in rotting wood, etc.). Tiny to small; 3.5–9 mm long; fliers, or non-fliers; relatively stout bodied. Rostrum clearly separated ventrally from the prosternum by a sclerotized gula; 4 segmented (the first very short). Antennae longer than the head, readily visible from above; 4 segmented (all the segments short and robust); non-aristate. Ocelli absent. Metathorax with a scent-gland opening, comprising a funnel surrounded by a dull patch of elaborately sculptured cuticle, visible laterally on either side to without laterally visible scent gland openings (openings “inconspicuous”). Fore-wings well developed, or conspicuous, but much shorter than the abdomen, or vestigial or absent; in the resting insect lying more or less flat over the abdomen; when macropterous, differentiated into a basally thickened and a distally membranous region, or more or less uniform in texture (the membrane sometimes reduced or missing); of macropters, with a clavus; with conspicuously raised, reticulate venation, or without conspicuously raised, reticulate venation. Hind coxae mobile; rotatory. Tarsi 2 segmented; two-clawed. Claws all apical. Pulvilli absent. The abdomen without ventral silvery pubescence.
Broad, very flattened, black or brown insects; head not widened behind the eyes; trochanters fused with femora; macropterous forms lacking a claval commissure - i.e., the clavi separated by the scutellum; each abdominal tergite with several sclerotized plates..
Taxonomy. Suborder Heteroptera; Aradoidea.
British representation. 7 species in Britain; genera 2. Aneurus, Aradus. E.g., Aneurus laevis (~Brachyrhynchidae: Smooth Aneurus); Aradus corticalis (Hampshire Aradus).
Illustrations. • Aneurus laevis (Original genus description. Smooth Aneurus: B. Ent. 86). • Aneurus laevis (detail: B. Ent. 86). • Aneurus laevis (dissections: B. Ent. 86). • Aneurus laevis (legend+text: B. Ent. 86). • Aneurus laevis (text: B. Ent. 86, cont.). • Aradus corticalis (Hampshire Aradus: B. Ent. 230). • Aradus corticalis (detail, dissections: B. Ent. 230). • Aradus corticalis (legend+text: B. Ent. 230). • Aradus corticalis (text: B. Ent. 230, cont.). • Aradus corticalis, A depressus, A. lawsoni and Aneurus laevis, with assorted unrelated taxa: Saunders, 1892.. TINGIDAE. Dictyla convergens. ANEURIDAE (~ARADIDAE). 2, Aneurus laevis. ARADIDAE. 3, Aradus depressus; 4, Aradus corticalis; 5, Aradus lawsoni Saunders, = ?. HEBRIDAE. 6, Hebrus pusillus. MESOVELIDAE. 7, Mesovelia furcata. SALDIDAE. 8, Aepophilus bonnairei. HYDROMETRIDAE. 9, Hydrometra stagnorum. VELIIDAE. 10, Microvelia pygmaea. 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’.
