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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hemiptera |
Naeogaeidae
Sphagnum Bugs.
Salient features of adults. Terrestrial to dwelling (skating) on the surface of water (semi-aquatic, in wet places, often in Lemna or Sphagnum).
Predacious, or feeding on dead arthropods (on living or dead arthropods). Tiny; 1–2 mm long; fliers; relatively stout bodied; not stilt-legged. Head non-linear. Rostrum clearly separated ventrally from the prosternum by a sclerotized gula; 4 segmented. Antennae longer than the head, readily visible from above; 5 segmented; non-aristate. Ocelli present (?). Fore-wings well developed (Hebrus pusillus), or vestigial or absent (usually, in H. ruficeps); in the resting insect lying more or less flat over the abdomen; of macropters, differentiated into a basally thickened and a distally membranous region. Hind coxae mobile; rotatory. Tarsi 2 segmented (the basal segment very small). Claws all apical. Pulvilli absent. The abdomen covered ventrally with dense, silvery pubescence.
Underside of abdomen covered with dense, silvery hairs; prosternum without a stridulatory groove.
Taxonomy. Suborder Heteroptera; Gerroidea (or Hebroidea).
British representation. 2 species in Britain (H. pusillus and H. ruficeps); genera 1. Hebrus.
Illustrations. • Hebrus pusillus, and micropterous Hebrus ruficeps (Southwood & Leston). • Hebrus pusillus, 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’.
