Review of the family Veliidae in Romania (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Gerromorpha)

Abstract

A critical review of the family Veliidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Gerromorpha) in Romania is provided. In total, two genera and eight species (Microvelia Westwood, 1834-3 species, Velia Latreille, 1804-5 species) are known from the country. Microvelia buenoi Drake, 1920 and Velia serbica Tamanini, 1951 are recorded for the first time from Romania. The occurrence of V. affinis filippii Tamanini, 1947 and V. mancinii mancinii Tamanini, 1947 is confirmed by additional records. Based on proven or suspected misidentifications, V. currens (Fabricius, 1794) and V. rivulorum (Fabricius, 1775) are excluded from the Romanian fauna. A checklist of the Veliidae of Romania and updated distribution maps are provided. Biogeographical aspects of the fauna are summarized.

Checklist of water bugs (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Nepomorpha, Gerromorpha) of Slovakia

“…This Holarctic species is distributed from the United Kingdom to northern China, Canada and northern United States. The southern boundary in Europe is delineated by France, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania and Ukraine; it is absent in southern Europe (Putshkov & Putshkov 1996, Rabitsch & Zettel 2000, Aukema et al 2013, Kment et al 2013, Berchi & Kment 2015. The species prefers shaded littoral zones of ditches, marshes and ponds, where it is particularly abundant among emergent macrophytes and submerged branches of shore vegetation (Wróblewski 1980, Aukema et al 2002.…”

Aquatic and semiaquatic Heteroptera (Nepomorpha and Gerromorpha) fauna of Greek holiday islands (Rhodes, Crete and Corfu) with first records of three species from Europe and Greece

“…Various species were misidentified based on simple external features or highly variable characters (cf. Tamanini 1947, Berchi & Kment 2015. Thus, Velia rhadamantha rhadamantha was described by Hoberlandt (1941) based on material collected from Crete, and redescribed by Tamanini (1947) based on material from the type locality and from Gavdos Island, which is close to Crete.…”

Molecular phylogeny and biogeography of the West‐Palaearctic Velia (Heteroptera: Gerromorpha: Veliidae)

“…(P.) serbica that promotes diversification. The macropterous morph seems to be absent or extremely rare in these lineages, because it was not found in hundreds of analysed individuals from various localities across their known distribution areas (see also Berchi & Kment, ). Another explanation might be that these patterns of microendemicity possibly reflect in situ survival throughout the Pleistocene glaciations in microrefugia ( sensu Rull, ).…”

“…Temperate species can overwinter both as adults and eggs on river banks (Ditrich & Papáček, ; Ditrich & Koštál, ). In a similar way to other gerromorphans, most Velia species exhibit wing polymorphism by having long‐winged (macropterous) and short‐winged (brachypterous) or long‐winged and completely wingless (apterous) morphs (Andersen, ; Ditrich & Papáček, ), although the winged morph is very rare or unknown in some taxa (see Cianferoni & Santini, ; Berchi & Kment, ).…”

“…The phylogeny and biogeography of Velia are poorly known due to a scarcity of data (both distributional and molecular) and the morphological similarity among its species, which not only hampered routine identifications (Berchi & Kment, ; Csabai et al ., ), but also limited the use of morphological characters in a cladistic context. Due to the high number of taxa and considerable endemism in the geomorphologically complex Mediterranean region, Velia is nevertheless a suitable candidate for biogeographical studies.…”