Bark bugs

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Bark bugs
Preparation of Dysodius lunatus

Preparation of Dysodius lunatus

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Schnabelkerfe (Hemiptera)
Subordination : Bed bugs (heteroptera)
Partial order : Pentatomomorpha
Superfamily : Aradoidea
Family : Bark bugs
Scientific name
Aradidae
Spinola , 1837
Pine bark bugs ( Aradus cinnamomeus ); Males and females (right) mating and one other male

The bark bugs or Aradidae are a family of bugs (Heteroptera) that are found worldwide . At least 2000 species of around 200 genera are known. There are 54 species in Europe . In Germany there are two species of the genus Aneurus , 18 species of the genus Aradus and one species of the genus Mezira . The bark bugs show a noticeable variability in many characteristics that are largely constant in the other families of the Pentatomomorpha .

features

The bark bugs are 3 to 11 millimeters long. They have a very widened and flattened body, on the surface of which there are often bumps, warts or protrusions. Often they are excellently camouflaged on tree bark or dead wood, accordingly they are mostly brown or black in color. The animals have a very special construction of the mouthparts , the otherwise only the termitaphididae have: Your extremely long proboscis is multiple legs long and is rolled at rest inside the elongated head capsule. A strong wing polymorphism is developed in many species. That is, there are individuals with well-developed wings and others with more or less receded wings. Most Central European bark bugs have well-developed (macroptere) wings and can fly well. Many of the tropical species, on the other hand, are wingless and often have strong morphological changes in the body that perfect their camouflage. The bark bugs have no point eyes ( ocelli ). Their clearly four-segment labium is usually short and strong. The thigh rings ( trochanters ) are sometimes fused with the thighs ( femora ), the tarsi are two-part. The nymphs have scent glands between the third to sixth, between the fourth to sixth or less often only between the third and fourth abdominal segment. The spiracles are usually on the ventral side of the body.

The family is defined by the following autapomorphies : the phallus of the males has a distinct, sclerotized phallotheca and the endosoma consists of conjunctiva and vesica. The pulvilli on the legs, if they are formed, are built similarly to those of the Trichophora , but are absent in the Aradinae . The salivary glands are tubular. The eggs have micropylar processes . The spermatheca consists of a pear-shaped part and a part that resembles a pump flange.

Occurrence

The bark bugs occur in all major zoogeographical regions . Five of the eight subfamilies are largely distributed worldwide, three others are Australian, New Zealand and South American. Almost half of all species are native to the Oriental - Pacific region, with around 200 species from New Guinea alone being known. Most species live under the bark of dead wood, or under pieces of bark, branches, and other objects on the ground of damp forests.

Way of life

With their flat build, bark bugs can live under loose bark or in narrow wooden crevices. Due to their color and shape, they are very well camouflaged on the bark. There are species that prefer to live on burnt dead wood and are colored black accordingly. Some species live in the company of termites , but there are also those that live in the nests of birds and rodents, or in the corridors of wood-boring beetles. The bugs presumably feed on fungi there too.

Many bark bugs feed on mushrooms. Thanks to their specially built mouthparts, they not only suck on the fruiting bodies, but also on the hyphae deep in the dead wood. The majority of the species live on certain types or families of trees and their specific fungi. The bugs have to take long flights of dispersion in order to find the appropriate wood in the appropriate decomposition stage and the appropriate fungal attack, since the appropriate living conditions are only found in recently dead wood and quickly become unsuitable for the bugs. Accordingly, the bugs must be able to react to the loss of their food source by searching for new ones. The flightless species of the Mezirinae and Carventinae live in the moist soil of rainforests and have an oversupply of fungal mycelium in the dead wood. Due to the largely uniform conditions, they continuously find their food, which means that they are not dependent on dispersion flight.

The species of the subfamilies Aneurinae and Calisiinae , and presumably species of other groups, feed on the sap of dying or living trees. In addition, the pine bark bug ( Aradus cinnamomeus ) sucks the cambium , phloem and xylem sap of living pines and larches and therefore causes damage to the plants. Also Aradus rinnamomeus can cause damage in mass occurrence in forestry.

In contrast to common bedbugs, the development of bark bugs in Central Europe is acyclic, which means that both nymphs and adults can be found all year round. The time from oviposition to adult insect varies greatly depending on the species and can take more than a year. The females stick their eggs to the surface below loose bark or in wooden crevices. At least one species, Neuroctenus pseudonymus , has been proven brood care . The female leaves her clutch after laying, but the male guards the offspring for about two weeks until the nymphs hatch and sometimes one or two days after that.

Taxonomy and systematics

The bark bugs form the common superfamily Aradoidea with the closest related Termitaphididae , which is in a sister group relationship to all other Pentatomomorpha ( called Trichophora ) . The following subfamilies and tribes are recognized by Schuh & Slater (1995):

  • Subfamily Aneurinae (7 genera, 95 species; worldwide)
  • Subfamily Aradinae (4 genera, about 200 species; but mainly Holarctic)
  • Subfamily Calisiinae (6 genera, about 100 species; mainly Palearctic)
  • Subfamily Carventinae (60 genera; mainly tropically distributed)
  • Subfamily Chinamyersiinae
    • Tribe Chinamyersiini (3 species; New Hebrides, New Caledonia, New Zealand)
    • Tretocorini tribe (1 genus, 6 species; New Zealand, Eastern Australia)
  • Subfamily Isoderminae (1 genus, 4 species; Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Tasmania)
  • Subfamily Mezirinae (at least 119 genera, 308 species; worldwide, mainly tropics and subtropics)
  • Subfamily Prosympiestinae

Species in Europe

The following species occur in Europe:

More types

A selection of non-European species:

supporting documents

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Ekkehard Wachmann , Albert Melber, Jürgen Deckert: Bugs. Volume 4: Pentatomomorpha II: Pentatomoidea: Cydnidae, Thyreocoridae, Plataspidae, Acanthosomatidae, Scutelleridae, Pentatomidae. (=  The animal world of Germany and the adjacent parts of the sea according to their characteristics and their way of life . 81st part). Goecke & Evers, Keltern 2008, ISBN 978-3-937783-36-9 , pp.  7 .
  2. ↑ a b Aradidae. Fauna Europaea, accessed December 21, 2013 .
  3. ↑ B. Klausnitzer: Entomofauna Germanica, Entomologische Nachrichten undberichte , supplement 8, p. 245, 2003
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j RT Schuh, JA Slater: True Bugs of the World (Hemiptera: Heteroptera). Classification and Natural History. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York 1995, pp. 208ff.
  5. ↑ Hong-Mei Li, Ri-Qiang Deng, Jin-Wen Wang, Zhen-Yao Chen, Feng-Long Jia, Xun-Zhang Wang: A preliminary phylogeny of the Pentatomomorpha (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) based on nuclear 18S rDNA and mitochondrial DNA sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 37 (2005) pp. 313-326.

literature

  • RT Schuh, JA Slater: True Bugs of the World (Hemiptera: Heteroptera). Classification and Natural History. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York 1995.
  • E. Wachmann, A. Melber, J. Deckert: Bugs. Volume 3: Pentatomorpha I, Aradidae, Lygaeidae, Piesmatidae, berytidae, Pyrrhocoridae, Alydidae, Coreidae, Rhopalidae, Stenocephalidae. Redesign of the bugs in Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland. Goecke & Evers, Keltern 2007, ISBN 978-3-937783-29-1 .

Web links

Commons : Aradidae  - collection of images, videos and audio files