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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hemiptera |
Mesoveliidae
Pondweed Bug.
Salient features of adults. Terrestrial (at the edge of water), or dwelling (skating) on the surface of water.
Predacious, or feeding on dead arthropods (on living or dead arthropods). Tiny; 3–4 mm long; fliers, or non-fliers; relatively stout bodied (elongate-oval); conspicuously stilt-legged. Head non-linear (large-headed). Rostrum clearly separated ventrally from the prosternum by a sclerotized gula; 3 segmented. Antennae longer than the head, readily visible from above; 4 segmented; non-aristate. Fore-wings well developed to 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; of macropters, with a clavus. Hind coxae mobile; rotatory. Tarsi 3 segmented (the basal segment very small). Claws all apical. Pulvilli absent. The abdomen covered ventrally with dense, silvery pubescence.
An olive green bug with dark markings; underside of abdomen with silvery pubescence, and ovipositor well developed; prosternum without a stridulatory groove.
Taxonomy. Suborder Heteroptera; Gerroidea.
British representation. 1 species in Britain (M. furcata); genera 1. Mesovelia.
Illustrations. • Mesovelia furcata (Southwood & Leston). • Mesovelia, with assorted other water bugs. • Mesovelia furcata, 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’.
