Aepophilus bonnairei

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Aepophilus bonnairei
Aepophilus bonnairei. Drawing E. Saunders, 1892

Aepophilus bonnairei. Drawing E. Saunders, 1892

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Schnabelkerfe (Hemiptera)
Partial order : Leptopodomorpha
Family : Aepophilidae
Genre : Aepophilus
Type : Aepophilus bonnairei
Scientific name of the  family
Aepophilidae
Signoret in Puton , 1879
Scientific name of the  genus
Aepophilus
Signoret , 1879
Scientific name of the  species
Aepophilus bonnairei
Signoret , 1879

Aepophilus bonnairei is a species of bug found on the coast of the East Atlantic. It is the only species of the genus Aepophilus as well as the family Aepophilidae.

features

In Aepophilus bonnairei is a tiny Wanzenart with a body length of just over 2 millimeters with yellowish brown color. The head is stretched out, the clypeus visible from above. He wears small complex eyes with fewer than 50 ommatidia ; only tiny rudiments of the ocelles have survived. Cheek plates (bucculae) are missing. The labium of the proboscis is elongated and four-limbed. The fore wings ( hemielytres ) are receded to small, triangular and scale-shaped rudiments, the hind wings are completely absent. The scutellum is also reduced to a narrow hem. Pronotum , scutellum and wing rudiments are covered with a very dense and fine, branched hair, which holds an air cushion in the submerged animal and acts as a plastron . The head and abdomen are longer covered with silky hair. The tarsi are tripartite, the first term very short. The abdomen consists of 10 segments. The tergum of the first is fused with the second, terga of the second to eighth segments are divided into a central tergite and two lateral paratergites.

distribution

The species lives on the coasts of Ireland, south-west England and Wales, the Netherlands, the north of France's Atlantic and Channel coasts, and the Atlantic coasts of Spain and Portugal. An occurrence in Morocco is indicated, but is not certain.

Way of life

Aepophilus bonnairei lives exclusively in the intertidal zone of the sea coast, often between Fucus deposits. It is found in cracks and crevices of rocky coastlines as well as under stones embedded in sand or silt. She feeds in a predatory manner. Sucking on annelids has been observed in the field and in the laboratory .

The life cycle of the species has been poorly researched. Larval stages were kept in the laboratory for several months, so that a relatively slow development can be assumed. There are reports that the females guard egg clutches.

Taxonomy

The species was named by Signoret in honor of its discoverer, Achille Bonnaire, who found it on the coast of the Île de Ré . According to morphological investigations, the family Aepophilidae forms the sister group of the Saldidae (spring or bank bugs), in which it is included by some processors (as the subfamily Aepophilinae). Originally a placement within the Gerromorpha (closely related to the Mesoveliidae ) or a relationship with the Cryptostemmatidae was assumed, but this is now considered unlikely.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Randall T. Schuh, James Alexander Slater: True Bugs of the World (Hemiptera: Heteroptera). Classification and Natural History. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York 1995, ISBN 0-8014-2066-0 .
  2. ↑ Raymond Poisson: Hétéroptères aquatices. In: Faune de France. 61st Edition Paul Lechavalier, Paris 1957, OCLC 468287539 ( faunedefrance.org PDF).
  3. ↑ a b c John T. Polhemus: Shore bugs (Hemiptera: Saldidae, etc.). In: Lanna Cheng (Ed.): Marine Insects. North-Holland Publishing Co., 1976, ISBN 0-444-11213-8 .
  4. ↑ Yunzhi Yao, Weiting Zhang, Dong Ren: New shore bug (Hemiptera, Heteroptera, Saldidae) from the Early Cretaceous of China with phylogenetic analyzes . In: ZooKeys . tape 130 , p. 185-198 , doi : 10.3897 / zookeys.130.1563 .
  5. ^ Dennis Leston: Systematics of the Marine Bug . In: Nature . tape 178 , no. 4530 , August 25, 1956, p. 427-428 , doi : 10.1038 / 178427a0 .

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