Polyctenidae

Polyctenidae
Systematics
Class :	Insects (Insecta)
Order :	Schnabelkerfe (Hemiptera)
Subordination :	Bed bugs (heteroptera)
Partial order :	Cimicomorpha
Superfamily :	Cimicoidea
Family :	Polyctenidae
Scientific name
	Polyctenidae
	Westwood , 1874

The Polyctenidae are a family of bugs (Heteroptera) within the suborder Cimicomorpha . There are 32 known species in five genera and two subfamilies. Their main area of distribution are the tropics of the Old World. They are the only bugs that are adapted to a permanent parasitic way of life on bats , both in their way of life and in their morphology . They are very rarely found.

features

The bugs reach body lengths of 3.0 to 5.0 millimeters, have a strongly flattened body and are similar to bat flies , streblidae and louse flies . They have several simple setae and ctenidia (bristle combs). These lie on the first and second antennae, on the genae , the rear edge of the head and the pronotum , the lobes of the mesonotum , the prosternum and the first abdominal segment. The bugs have neither compound eyes nor point eyes ( Ocelli ). Your labrum and front plate ( clypeus ) form a large, arched bulge. The antennae are four-part, the first and, in some species, the second are significantly enlarged. The four-part labium is deflected approximately in the middle of the underside of the head. Its first link is sometimes very short. The lower part of the face (hypostoma) has modified setae.

The pro- and mesothorax are lobed when viewed from above. The sternum of the prothorax is grooved. The bugs are missing wings. Their legs are short to moderately long and their rails ( tibia ) are unevenly sclerotized and ringed. The rails of the front legs are provided with a brush made of fine thorns in the males. There are no spongy fossulae (specialized hairy structures that serve to hold on) on the legs. In adult bedbugs the legs have three in the front, four in the middle and four in the back; the nymphs have two in front and three in the middle and back. The claws of the front legs are often irregularly shaped and noticeably modified. How well the scent glands are developed on the metathorax is unknown. The pleuron of the metathorax is almost completely transformed into an evaporatorium. Laterotergites are only formed ventrally .

There are no spiracles on the first abdominal segment; on the second to eighth abdominal segments they lie on the abdominal laterotergites. At least in some species the sternum of the first abdomen segment is poorly developed. In the nymphs, the scent glands are located on the abdomen in some, but not all species, on the posterior margin of the fourth, fifth and sixth tergum . The genitals of the males are strongly asymmetrical. The left paramere has been converted into a mating organ, the right one is missing. The vesica is membranous and built into the paramers. The females lack the ovipositor . The eighth sternum is designed as a large plate.

Characteristic for the family are the lack of compound eyes, the bristle combs, the tarsi formula in the nymphs and adult bugs, and the ringed splints.

Way of life

The animals live permanently as ectoparasites on bats. They have been found in slit noses (Nycteridae), large-leaf noses (Megadermatidae), horseshoe bats ( Rhinolophidae), round-leaf noses (Hipposideridae) and bulldog bats (Molossidae). They each specialize in certain types of host. The species of the genus Androctenes are apparently only found on horseshoe bats , those of the genera Hesperoctenes and Hypoctenes on bulldog bats. They are only found on a few host animals, which is why it is assumed that they are rare. In a study in Malaysia, however, Eoctenes spasmae was found in 85% of all examined bats of the species Megaderma spasmae with an average frequency of 13.7 bugs per host. Mating occurs, as in some other groups of the Cimicoidea, by traumatic insemination , in which the male penetrates the female directly through the right metacoxal membrane. The sperm then migrates backwards in the female's body. The mating takes place before the female is sexually mature. The eggs have no shell, chorion, or yolk and develop as they travel down the oviduct. The nymphs develop in the unborn state and lie with their heads pointing forward in the vagina. Each female carries up to ten embryos of different degrees of maturity. After birth, they go through three nymph stages.

Taxonomy and systematics

The first described taxa of the group were not recognized as bugs and were assigned to the bat flies (Nycteribiidae) by Giglioli in 1864 . Westwood introduced them to the real animal lice (Anoplura) in 1874 . It was not until 1904 that Speiser realized that they were rightly bugs.

The following subfamilies and genera are assigned to the family:

- Genus Hypoctenes ( Congo Basin , New Guines )

supporting documents

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c Family Polyctenidae. Australian Biological Resources Study. Australian Faunal Directory, accessed April 7, 2015 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ R.T. Schuh, JA Slater: True Bugs of the World (Hemiptera: Heteroptera). Classification and Natural History. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York 1995, pp. 202ff.

literature

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

[abrs-1] Family Polyctenidae. Australian Biological Resources Study. Australian Faunal Directory, accessed April 7, 2015 .

[Schuh/Slater-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ R.T. Schuh, JA Slater: True Bugs of the World (Hemiptera: Heteroptera). Classification and Natural History. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York 1995, pp. 202ff.