Piesmatidae

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Piesmatidae
Parapiesma quadratum 01.JPG
Parapiesma quadratum
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Superfamily: Piesmatoidea
Family: Piesmatidae
Amyot & Audinet-Serville, 1843
Type genus
Piesma
Lepelitier & Serville, 1825

Piesmatidae is a small family of true bugs, commonly called ash-grey leaf bugs. The Piesmatidae are distributed mostly in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with some occurring in Africa, Australia and South America. A common species found throughout the Americas is Piesma cinereum . [1]

Contents

Ash-grey leaf bugs are small insects, some 2–4 mm overall. The head, thorax and the firm part of the wings are extensively dimpled. This resembles the similar pattern of the Tingidae of the infraorder Cimicomorpha, and was initially taken to signify a close relationship. It is due to convergent evolution however. [1]

They feed on plant sap, mostly of Chenopodiaceae and Caryophyllaceae. Piesma linnavouri have been found on Acacia (Fabaceae). Mcateella have been found on many host plants but mostly Acacia and Proteaceae . The host plants of Miespa remain unknown. [1]

Taxonomy

Three subfamilies and eleven genera belong to the family Piesmatidae: [2]

Piesmatinae

Psamminae

Thaicorniae

Many species were formerly in the type genus Piesma , from which the subgenera Afropiesma and Parapiesma were split off into separate genera. The genus Thaicoris was for some time placed in this family, but it has more recently been suggested that it is a member of the Thaumastocoridae. [1]

There are two fossil genera. Eopiesma from the earliest Eocene (about 55 mya) is still a very basal member of the family. Heissiana , found in Baltic amber from the Eocene might be a northern relative of Mcateella and Miespa but given its distribution it might more comfortably be considered closely related to the ancestor of Eopiesma. [1] From 2007 to 2009 Cretopiesma was placed within the family. Cretopiesma was found in mid-Cretaceous amber from Myanmar and lived about 100 mya (million years ago) and was initially considered to be a primitive piesmatid but this has since been rejected.

The closest relatives of the Piesmatidae remain rather insufficiently determined. After the ash-grey leaf bugs were recognized as Pentatomomorpha, they were most often placed in the Lygaeoidea based on cladistic analysis, with their relatives variously presumed to be the Berytidae, Colobathristidae and Malcidae, or the peculiar, beetle-like Psamminae, a subfamily of the Lygaeidae. For some time, the Psamminae were even included in the Piesmatidae. [1]

Alternatively, the ash-grey leaf bugs were considered Pentatomomorpha incertae sedis or placed in a monotypic superfamily Piesmatoidea with the discovery of Cretopiesma. However a cladistic analysis rejected Cretopiesma from Piesmatidae and placed the genus in the family Aradidae. [3]

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Pentatomoidea Superfamily of true bugs

The Pentatomoidea are a superfamily of insects in the Heteroptera suborder of the Hemiptera order. As Hemiptera, they share a common arrangement of sucking mouthparts. The roughly 7000 species under Pentatomoidea are divided into 21 families. Among these are the shield bugs, giant shield bugs, burrower bugs, and stink bugs.

Coreidae Family of insects

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Pentatomomorpha Infraorder of true bugs

The Pentatomomorpha comprise an infraorder of insects in the true bug order Hemiptera. It unites such animals as the stink bugs (Pentatomidae), flat bugs (Aradidae), seed bugs, etc. They are closely related to the Cimicomorpha.

Aradoidea Superfamily of true bugs

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Lygaeoidea Superfamily of true bugs

The Lygaeoidea are a sizeable superfamily of true bugs, containing seed bugs and allies, in the order Hemiptera. There are about 16 families and more than 4,600 described species in Lygaeoidea, found worldwide. Most feed on seeds or sap, but a few are predators.

Lygaeidae Family of true bugs

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Archaeidae, also known as assassin spiders and pelican spiders, is a spider family with about ninety described species in five genera. It contains small spiders, ranging from 2 to 8 millimetres long, that prey exclusively on other spiders. They are unusual in that they have "necks", ranging from long and slender to short and fat. The name "pelican spider" refers to these elongated jaws and necks used to catch their prey. Living species of Archaeidae occur in South Africa, Madagascar and Australia, with the sister family Mecysmaucheniidae occurring in southern South America and New Zealand.

Rhyparochromidae Family of true bugs

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Nevrorthidae Family of insects

The Nevrorthidae, often incorrectly spelled "Neurorthidae", are a small family of winged insects of the order Neuroptera. Extant species may be described as living fossils. There are 19 extant species in four genera, with a geographically disjunct distribution, Nevrorthus, comprising 5 species with scattered distributions around the Mediterranean, Austroneurorthus with two species known from southeastern Australia, Nipponeurorthus comprising 11 species known from China and Japan, and Sinoneurorthus known from a single species described from Yunnan Province, China. They were at one time placed in the Osmyloidea, with the Osmylidae and the spongillaflies (Sisyridae) as their closest relatives, but nowadays they are considered to be the most ancient lineage of living lacewings. Sometimes they are placed in a suborder Nevrorthiformia, but the quite basal position of the family is probably better expressed by placing them directly in the Neuroptera, without assigning the subordinal rank.

Apsilocephalidae Family of flies

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Oxycarenidae Family of true bugs

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Metacanthinae Subfamily of true bugs

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Pachygronthidae Family of true bugs

Pachygronthidae is a family of true bugs in the order Hemiptera. There are about 14 genera and more than 80 described species in Pachygronthidae.

Colobathristidae is a family of true bugs in the order Hemiptera. There are more than 20 genera and 90 described species in Colobathristidae.

2015 in paleoentomology is a list of new fossil insect taxa that were described during the year 2016, as well as other significant discoveries and events related to paleoentomology that were scheduled to occur during the year.

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<i>Piesma</i> Genus of true bugs

Piesma is a genus of ash-grey leaf bugs, insects of the family Piesmatidae. It is the type genus of the family.

Yuripopovinidae is an extinct family of Hemipterans belonging to the superfamily Coreoidea. It is known from the Early Cretaceous and early Late Cretaceous of Asia and northern Gondwana. distinguishing characters include "the hemelytral costal vein apically much thickened and pterostigma-like, the corium with two large cells separated by one longitudinal straight vein." The family Dehiscensicoridae from the Yixian Formation of China was synonymized with the family in 2019. The family and type genus are named after Russian paleoentomologist Yuri Alexandrovich Popov.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Grimaldi, David A. & Engel, Michael S. (2007): An Unusual, Primitive Piesmatidae (Insecta: Heteroptera) in Cretaceous Amber from Myanmar (Burma). American Museum Novitates3611: 1-17. DOI:10.1206/0003-0082(2008)3611[1:AUPPIH]2.0.CO;2 PDF fulltext
  2. Dellapé, Pablo M.; Henry, Thomas J. (2020). "family Piesmatidae Amyot & Serville, 1843". Lygaeoidea Species File. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
  3. Cassis, G., & R.T. Schuh (2010) Systematic methods, fossils, and relationships within Heteroptera (Insecta). Cladistics 26:262-280.