Phloeidae

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Phloeidae
Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Schnabelkerfe (Hemiptera)
Subordination : Bed bugs (heteroptera)
Partial order : Pentatomomorpha
Superfamily : Pentatomoidea
Family : Phloeidae
Scientific name
Phloeidae
Amyot & Serville , 1843

The Phloeidae are a family of bed bugs (Heteroptera) within the suborder Pentatomomorpha . Of these, 3 recent species in 2 genera are known.

features

The bugs become 20 to 30 millimeters long. Their brownish, extremely flattened body with greatly enlarged body edges is an excellent adaptation for camouflaging on bark.

The outer edges of the mandibles, the pronotum , the base of the corium of the hemielytras and the abdomen are broadly plate-like. The compound eyes are divided into a dorsal and a ventral part. The buccules are long, low behind and have a very elongated labial canal. The first segment of the tripartite antennae is very long, the third is somewhat curved. The antennae are almost completely covered by the plate-like widened mandibles. The back part of the scutellum is very elongated. It doesn't cover the forewings. Their membranes are strongly veined like a network. The hind wings have a hamus (a hook-shaped transverse artery in the disc cell, derived from the media). The tarsi are tripartite. The Third to Seventh sternum on the abdomen carries along, the line of Mesad stigmata arranged Trichobothria . The olfactory gland openings on the metathorax are close to the lateral edge of the pleuron . In the nymphs , the dorsal scent gland openings of the abdomen lie between the third to sixth tergum . Those between the third to the fifth are arranged in pairs, in the case of the last, the pair has grown together to form an opening. In some species the foremost scent gland opening is missing. The connexive on the abdomen is fused with the terga and the sterna ; there are no inner laterotergites. The stigma on the second segment is formed and partially visible. The ninth paratergite is greatly elongated. The aedeagus has three pairs of processes on the conjunctiva.

The three-part antennae, the strongly plate-like extended body edge and the features of the aedeagus are autapomorphies of the group.

Occurrence

The family occurs only in the Neotropic . Its distribution is limited to South America.

Way of life

Due to their morphology and color, these bugs are perfectly camouflaged on the bark of trees, where they look like lichen growth. The animals can shoot liquid from their scent glands up to some distance away. Obviously, this does not serve the defense, since this behavior could not be observed in connection with disturbances, it is probably more an excretory function. The bugs don't fly. They obviously have a phytophagous diet . In an investigation in 2003, the animals were found exclusively on an unspecified type of myrobalan ( Terminalia ), probably Terminalia kuhlmannii . In all three species of Phloeidae it has been proven that the females care for the brood . They not only guard their egg clutches, over which they sit to camouflage themselves until the brood hatch, but they also protect the nymphs at least in the first, but probably also up to the third stage, by carrying them around for many days attached to their belly. Whether they also provide them with food, as suggested by some authors, is controversial and still unclear.

Taxonomy and systematics

The taxon was first described by Charles Jean Baptiste Amyot & Jean Guillaume Audinet Serville in 1843 as "Phleides" and placed as a subfamily to the stink bugs (Pentatomidae). Leston (1953) and later Lent & Jurberg (1965) and Rolston & McDonald (1979) treated the group as an independent family. The following genera and species are assigned to it:

supporting documents

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h R.T. Schuh, JA Slater: True Bugs of the World (Hemiptera: Heteroptera). Classification and Natural History. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York 1995, pp. 234ff.
  2. ↑ a b c Eric Guilbert: Habitat use and maternal care of Phloea subquadrata (Hemiptera: Phloeidae) in the Brasilian Atlantic forest (Espritio Santo). European journal of entomology 100: pp. 61–63, 2003 (online: PDF ( Memento of the original dated December 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.eje.cz

literature

  • RT Schuh, JA Slater: True Bugs of the World (Hemiptera: Heteroptera). Classification and Natural History. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York 1995.

Web links