|
Heteroptera is a group of about 40,000 species of insects (also called true bugs) in the order Hemiptera. The word "Heteroptera" is Greek for different wings: most species have forewings with both membranous and hardened portions (called hemelytra); members of the primitive infraorder Enicocephalomorpha have wings that are completely membranous. The name Heteroptera is used in two very different ways in modern classifications; it commonly appears as a suborder within Hemiptera, but also as a rankless (non-Linnaean) but monophyletic grouping of infraorders within the suborder Prosorrhyncha of the order Hemiptera. The infraorders Gerromorpha and Nepomorpha contain most of the aquatic and semi-aquatic members of the suborder, while nearly all of the remaining groups that are common and familiar are in the infraorders Cimicomorpha and Pentatomomorpha.
Classification The use of the name "Heteroptera" has a long history at the rank of order, dating back to Latreille, 1810, and it is only recently that it has been relegated to a subsidiary rank within a larger definition of Hemiptera, so many reference works still include it as an order. Whether to continue treating it as a suborder is still a subject of some controversy, as is whether the name itself should still be used. The two primary competing classifications basically boil down to preference for two suborders versus one, when the "living fossil" family Peloridiidae is taken into consideration: Aside from the question of the actual "closeness" of Heteroptera and Coleorrhyncha is the potential disruption to traditional construction of names; there seems to be reluctance among hemipterists to abandon the use of "Heteroptera" regardless of how appropriate it may be. This can be seen by the name itself, as it is a violation of convention to use the ending "-ptera" for any rank above genus other than an order - though since it is a convention rather than a Rule of nomenclature, taxonomists are technically free to violate it (which is why, for example, not all insect orders end in "-ptera", e.g., Odonata). However, in most cases when such conventions are violated, it does not create an internal conflict as in the present case (that is, the order Hemiptera has a suborder named Heteroptera, which is an internal conflict). At least some hemipterists argue that the one-suborder classification should be preferred because if it is adopted, then the name Heteroptera can be dropped entirely, eliminating this internal conflict. Selected families of Heteroptera Water bugs Water bugs are a common name for a number of aquatic insects, presently classified in the infraorders Gerromorpha and Nepomorpha of the order Hemiptera. The latter infraorder contains those taxa that were once known as the "Gymnocerata". Note that, unfortunately, the common name "water bug" is very often applied to the Oriental cockroach. Selected families of water bugs | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
| |