Wednesday 24 April 2013

Pephricus, Amyot & Serville, 1843.

We're going to start with a quick word on Bugs.

Americans in my limited readership are forgiven, but not excused here - yes, the vernacular "Bug" has a deep and rich history of use for all small invertebrates west of the pacific, similar to the Afrikaans (only slightly more broadly used) Goggo, but in such use, both terms are reductionist, and allow users not to contemplate the life-form they are describing so dismissively. 

So, back to the word Bug. It has a wealth of meanings, but when discussing insects, it should be used for the order Hemiptera, which comprises a lot of species with a few unifying features:

1) They are hemimetabolous, which is to say that their nymphs look more-or-less like wingless miniatures of the adults.

2) They have a piercing rostrum, a modified and highly effective mouthpart, which tends to limit them to a liquid diet.

3) They usually have only five segments to their antennae.

This is not a tiny order, with over 50,000 species, but it certainly does not include all insects. We're going to talk about one it does:

Eukaryota
  Animalia
    Eumetazoa
      Bilateralia
        Nephrozoa
          Protostomia
            Ecdysozoa
              Arthropoda
                Hexapoda
                  Insecta
                    Dicondylia
                      Pterygota
                        Metapterygota
                          Neoptera
                            Eumetabola
                              Paraneoptera 
                                Condylognatha (presumably from latin Condylus (reed) and the greek gnath (jaw bone)
                                  Hemiptera (literally 'half wing', includes all true bugs)
                                    Heteroptera (literally 'different wing', reflecting that the wings are asymmetrically held at rest, with one partially crossing over the other)
                                      Pentatomomorpha (mostly herbivorous sap-suckers, a few predatory species. Includes all the 'Stink bugs', most notable among which are the shield bugs of Pentatomidae).
                                        Coreoidea
                                          Coreidae
                                            Coreinae
                                              Phyllomorphini

Pephricus
Amyot & Serville, 1843

And here... it is:

Pephricus (Amyot & Serville, 1843). Kabulonga, Lusaka, Zambia, October 2011.
This quite extraordinary bug is really quite difficult to notice when it's not just flown off or landed - the first I saw was immediately dismissed as a burr, until it started moving. This one was seen a few weeks later, in Kabulonga, Lusaka, Zambia. 

The genus does extend out of Africa, and into parts of the middle east, but its distribution is centred on sub-saharan Africa. 


                             


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