|
| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hemiptera |
Pond Skaters, Wherrymen, Water Striders.
Salient features of adults. Dwelling (skating) on the surface of water.
Predacious, or feeding on dead arthropods (on living or dead arthropods). Small to large; 6–18 mm long; fliers, or non-fliers; probably emitting repugnatorial liquid as a defence reaction; with narrow-elongate bodies; conspicuously stilt-legged. Head non-linear. Rostrum clearly separated ventrally from the prosternum by a sclerotized gula; 4 segmented. Antennae longer than the head, readily visible from above; 4 segmented; non-aristate. Metathorax without laterally visible scent gland openings (but with a single, simpler, median opening on the sternum). Fore-wings well developed to vestigial or absent; in the resting insect lying more or less flat over the abdomen; when macropterous, more or less uniform in texture. Hind coxae mobile; rotatory. Tarsi 2 segmented. Claws of fore-legs inserted short of the tip of the terminal segment. The abdomen covered ventrally with dense, silvery pubescence. The second visible abdominal sternite with a long, spine-like, forwardly directed anterior process.
Middle legs inserted much closer to the hind-legs than to the fore-legs.
Taxonomy. Suborder Heteroptera; Gerroidea.
British representation. 9 species in Britain; genera 3. Aquarius, Gerris, Limnoporus. E.g., Gerris ‘apicalis’ Curtis (Black-tipped Underwing Pond-skater).
Illustrations. • Gerris apicalis Curtis (Black-tipped Underwing Pond-skater), = ? : B. Ent. 553). • Gerris apicalis (detail: B. Ent. 553). • Gerris apicalis (dissections: B. Ent. 553). • Gerris apicalis: legend+text: B. Ent. 553. • Gerris apicalis (text: B. Ent. 553, cont.). • Gerris odontogaster, with assorted other water bugs. • Aquarius, Gerris (5 spp.) and Limnoporus, with Velia and Reduviidae: Saunders XIV (1892).. VELIIDAE. 1, Velia caprai. GERRIDAE. 2, Limnoporus rufoscutellatus (as Gerris); 3, Aquarius paludum (as Gerris); 4, Gerris costai ssp. poissoni; 5, Gerris lateralis ssp. asper (as G. aspera); 6, Gerris gibbifer (as G. gibbifera); 7, Gerris lacustris; 8, Gerris argentatus (as G. argentata). REDUVIIDAE. 9, Empicoris vagabundus (as Ploiaria); 10, Pygolampis bidentata. From Saunders (1892).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hemiptera. Version: 27th July 2019. delta-intkey.com’.
