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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hemiptera |
Shore Bugs.
Salient features of adults. Terrestrial; littoral (commonly), or not littoral (in damp places).
Predacious (with non-raptorial fore-legs, usually hunting on bare ground). Tiny to small; fliers and non-fliers; conspicuous jumpers; not emitting repugnatorial liquid; relatively stout bodied; conspicuously stilt-legged to not stilt-legged. Head not transversely grooved between the eyes. 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. Ocelli present; between the eyes. Metathorax without laterally visible scent gland openings (metathorax without scent glands). 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; of macropters, differentiated into a basally thickened and a distally membranous region; without costal fracture and cuneus; of macropters, with a clavus. Fore-legs non-raptorial. Hind coxae mobile; hinged. Pulvilli absent. The abdomen without ventral silvery pubescence.
Rapid runners and fliers, with large eyes; often but not always black with whitish markings.
Taxonomy. Suborder Heteroptera; Saldoidea.
British representation. 22 species in Britain; genera 8. Aepophilus, Chartoscirta, Chiloxanthus, Halosalda, Micracanthia, Salda, Saldula, Teloleuca. E.g., Halosalda pulchella (Beautiful Acanthia).
Illustrations. • Halosalda lateralis (Beautiful Acanthia: B. Ent. 548). • Halosalda lateralis (detail, dissections: B. Ent. 548). • Halosalda lateralis: B. Ent. 548, legend+text. • Halosalda lateralis: B. Ent. 548, text cont.. • Saldula saltatoria, with assorted other water bugs. • Chiloxanthus, Halosalda, Micranthia, Salda, Saldula, Teloleuca: Saunders (1892).. NABIDAE. 1, Nabis ferus; 2, Nabis rugosus. SALDIDAE. (All as Salda spp. in the original legend.) 3, Chiloxanthus pilosus; 4 and 4a, Halosalda lateralis, macropterous and brachypterous respectively. 5, Teloleuca pellucens (as S. riparia); 6, Saldula scotica; 7, Salda morio; 8, Salda littoralis; 9, Saldula c-album; 10, Micranthia marginalis. From Saunders (1892). • Chartoscirta cincta and C. elegantula, with Cimicidae and Dipsocoridae: Saunders (1892).. SALDIDAE. 1, Chartoscirta elegantula (as Salda); 2, Chartoscirta cincta (as Salda). DIPSORORIDAE. 3, Ceratocombus coleoptratus; 4, Cryptostemma alienum. CIMICIDAE. 5, Cimex lectularius; 6, Oeciacus hirundinis (as Cimex); 7, Cimex pipistrelli; 8, Lyctocoris campestris; 9, Xylocoris galactinus (as Piezostethus); 10, Xylocoris formicetorum (as Piezostethus). From Saunders (1892). • Aepophilus bonnairei, 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’.
