Pentatomomorpha
Infraorder of true bugs
The Pentatomomorpha are an infraorder of insects in the true bug order Hemiptera. The group includes such animals as the shield- or stink-bugs (Pentatomidae and alies), flat bugs (Aradidae), seed bugs (Lygaeidae and Rhyparochromidae), etc. They are closely related to the Cimicomorpha.
Based on the fossil morphology, the common ancestor of Pentatomomorpha must be older than the fossils in the late Triassic. They play an important role in agriculture and forestry industries and they are also used as controlling agents in studies.
01Systematics
Five superfamilies are usually placed in the Pentatomomorpha. The Aradoidea are the sister group to the remaining superfamilies, while the others, often united as clade Trichophora, share a more recent common ancestor:
- Aradoidea Brullé, 1836
- Coreoidea Leach, 1815
- Lygaeoidea Schilling, 1829
- Pentatomoidea Leach, 1815
- Idiostoloidea Stys 1964
- Pyrrhocoroidea Amyot & Serville, 1843
Among these, the Pentatomoidea seem to represent a by and large monophyletic lineage as traditionally understood, while the other three form a close-knit group and are in need of further study. The Idiostolidae were considered a family of the Lygaeoidea, but have been found to be a sister of the Henicocoridae and are now treated under the superfamily Idiostoloidea.
The Piesmatidae, usually placed in the Lygaeoidea also, are sometimes considered 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.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Pentatomomorpha”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Coreidae squash bug.jpg by Muhammad Mahdi Karim, GFDL 1.2
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