Systematics and Evolution of Heteroptera: 25 Years of Progress

Abstract

Heteroptera, or true bugs, are part of the most successful radiation of nonholometabolous insects. Twenty-five years after the first review on the influence of cladistics on systematic research in Heteroptera, we summarize progress, problems, and future directions in the field. The few hypotheses on infraordinal relationships conflict on crucial points. Understanding relationships within Gerromorpha, Nepomorpha, Leptopodomorpha, Cimicomorpha, and Pentatomomorpha is improving, but progress within Enicocephalomorpha and Dipsocoromorpha is lagging behind. Nonetheless, the classifications of several superfamily-level taxa within the Pentatomomorpha, such as Aradoidea, Coreoidea, and Pyrrhocoroidea, are still unaffected by cladistic studies. Progress in comparative morphology is slow and drastically impedes our understanding of the evolution of major clades. Molecular systematics has dramatically contributed to accelerating the generation and testing of hypotheses. Given the fascinating natural history of true bugs and their status as model organisms for evolutionary studies, integration of cladistic analyses in a broader biogeographic and evolutionary context deserves increased attention.

A catalogue of the type specimens of Heteroptera (Insecta) housed at the Instituto Fundación Miguel Lillo (Tucumán, Argentina)

“…With more than 40,000 described species, Heteroptera (Hemiptera), or true bugs, are part of the most successful radiation of nonholometabolous insects (Weirauch & Schuh, 2011). Heteropterans live on many different habitats: terrestrial, aquatic, intertidal and associated to other arthropods; and they include groups of phytophagous, predators and blood-sucking bugs.…”

Description of the pre-reductional sex chromosome during male meiosis of Pachylis laticornis (Heteroptera: Coreidae)

“…It consists of seven infraorders (Leptopodomorpha, Gerromorpha, Nepomorpha, Pentatomomorpha, Cimicomorpha, Dipsocoromorpha, and Enicocephalomorpha), with approximately 80 families (Schuh and Slater, 1995) and more than 40,000 species that have been described (Weirauch and Schuh, 2011).…”

Mate-guarding in a promiscuous insect: species discrimination influences context-dependent behaviour

“…Oncopletus fasciatus is a new world species and would never naturally co-exist with L. equestris. While the phylogeny of this group remains to some extent unresolved (Weirauch and Schuh 2011) it is probable that O. fasciatus is more distantly related to L. equestris than S. pandurus. Previous laboratory studies have found evidence of sexual conflict and RI between L. equestris and S. pandurus.…”