Pameridea
| Pameridea | ||||||||||
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Pameridea roridulae |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Pameridea | ||||||||||
| Reuter , 1907 |
Pameridea is a genus of the soft bugs (Miridae). The species of the genus are characterized by the fact that they are particularly adapted to life on the bug plants ( Roridula ), a genus of carnivorous plants .
features
The Pameridea species are very long-legged and the body is covered with fine hairs.
Way of life of bedbugs
The species Pameridea marlothii Poppius , 1911 and Pameridea roridulae Reuter , 1907 are known. P. roridulae can be found on both types of bug plants, P. marlothi only on Roridula dentata . Like their host plants, the bugs also live in the Fynbos region of South Africa .
nutrition
The bugs feed on the insects that are caught by the plants. The plants themselves are not able to digest the insects, so they are not “real” carnivorous plants. Instead, through the very thin cuticle , they absorb the nutrients contained in the bedbugs' excrement. They cover up to 70% of their nitrogen requirements with this excrement.
At times when not enough prey animals stick to the plants or the population of bedbugs becomes too large, the animals also sting the plants and suck up plant juices. This is also possible with other plants, so that the bugs can manage without bed bugs in their diet for a long time.
Avoidance of the catch mechanisms
How exactly the bugs protect themselves from sticking is not yet clear. It is assumed that the animals are able to hold on to the lower parts of the stem glands of the plants through the special shape of their tarsi and thereby largely not come into contact with the sticky tip; in addition, they keep their bodies away from the surface of the plants, clean themselves frequently and have a method of separating any legs that have come into contact from the adhesive.
Enemies
The Pameridea bugs are safe from most of their predators on the bed bugs. The only enemies that chase the bedbugs on the plant are some spiders who also specialize in life on the bedbug plant. It is the crab spider Synema marlothii . In addition to eating the animals captured by the plant, this also specializes in catching bed bugs.
use
Both types are meaningless to humans. Pameridea roridulae is occasionally cultivated on bug plants by collectors of carnivorous plants , Pameridea marlothi is not (no longer) in cultivation .
proof
- WR Dolling, JM Palmer: Pameridea (Hemiptera: Miridae): predaceous bugs specific to the highly viscid plant genus Roridula. In: Syst. Entomol. 16, 1991, pp. 319-328.
further reading
- OM Reuter: Ad cognitionem Capsidarum aethiopicarum. IV. In: Öfversigt af Finska Vetenskapssocietenens Förhandlingar. Vol. 49, No. 7, 1907, pp. 1-27. (ia800502.us.archive.org)
Individual evidence
Most of the information in this article has been taken from the sources given under references; the following sources are also cited:
- ↑ B. Anderson, JJ Midgley: It takes two to tango but three is a tangle: mutualists and cheaters on the carnivorous plant Roridula. In: Oecologia. 132, 2002, pp. 369-373.
- ^ Paul Simons: When a carnivore is not a carnivore. In: New Scientist. No. 2045, August 31, 1996, p. 16 (newscientist.com)
- ^ WR Dolling, JM Palmer: Pameridea (Hemiptera: Miridae): predaceous bugs specific to the highly viscid plant genus Roridula. In: Syst. Entomol. 16, 1991, pp. 319-328.