Tuesday, December 11, 2007
D0241

Unusual antennal morphology in Rhyparochromidae (Heteroptera) convergent across two hemipsheres

Jane O'Donnell, jane.odonnell@uconn.edu, University of Connecticut, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 75 North Eagleville Road, Unit 3043, Storrs, CT

Material from the California Academy of Sciences Arthropods of Madagascar project included an as yet undescribed rhyparochromid bug with enormously swollen second, third and fourth antennal segments. The morphology of these antennae is described and figured with line drawings and scanning electron micrographs. A similar antennal modification in another undescribed rhyparochromid from Oregon, USA, is also described and figured. A hypothesis for the evolution of these antennae is presented (myrmecophily), and morphological changes associated with myrmecophilous Heteroptera are surveyed.


Species 1: Hemiptera Rhyparochromidae