Coleopteroid rhyparochromid bug.
I thought this rhyparachromid bug was a black beetle when I first saw it climbing this concrete wall. It was pure shiny black and wings were of coleopteroid form. That is the wings met down the middle without overlapping. The corium (thickened portion) being enlarged with the membranous ends reduced to small flaps (barely visible - see note on pic). Thus also exsposing some of the rear abdominal segments.
Apparantly coleoptery occurs numerously across Lygaeoidea in Australia but noticeably so in rhyparachromids. Slater (1975) observed a greater occurance of this form in these bugs found in exposed hot xeric habitat and thus suggests it is an insulation adaptation.
Recommended paper (free):
Slater JA 1975. "On the Biology and Zoogeography of Australian Lygaeidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) with Special Reference to the Southwest Fauna".
J. Aust. en. Soc., 1975, 14: 47-64.
Photographed in Dynnyrne, Hobart, TAS.
Coleopteroid rhyparochromid bug.
I thought this rhyparachromid bug was a black beetle when I first saw it climbing this concrete wall. It was pure shiny black and wings were of coleopteroid form. That is the wings met down the middle without overlapping. The corium (thickened portion) being enlarged with the membranous ends reduced to small flaps (barely visible - see note on pic). Thus also exsposing some of the rear abdominal segments.
Apparantly coleoptery occurs numerously across Lygaeoidea in Australia but noticeably so in rhyparachromids. Slater (1975) observed a greater occurance of this form in these bugs found in exposed hot xeric habitat and thus suggests it is an insulation adaptation.
Recommended paper (free):
Slater JA 1975. "On the Biology and Zoogeography of Australian Lygaeidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) with Special Reference to the Southwest Fauna".
J. Aust. en. Soc., 1975, 14: 47-64.
Photographed in Dynnyrne, Hobart, TAS.