Hemiptera

Rogers, D. Christopher & Cruz-Rivera, Edwin, 2021, A preliminary survey of the inland aquatic macroinvertebrate biodiversity of St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, Journal of Natural History 55 (13 - 14), pp. 799-850 : 822-823

Hemiptera

Gutiérrez-Fonsec et al. (2013) report 12 families from Puerto Rico, while Barber (1939) reported on the Hemiptera of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Despite the limitations of our surveys, we found 18 aquatic hemipteran taxa from eight families in our sites. Aquatic members of this group are greatly underrepresented in previous works. In the Corixidae , Tenagobia incerta Lundblad, 1928 , Trichorixa louisianae Sailer, 1948 , Ramphicorixa rotundicephala Hungerford, 1927, and Sigara modesta (Abbott, 1916) were reported from Puerto Rico ( Hungerford 1948; Sailer 1948) and may be found in the US Virgin Islands at some point.

Among the Belostomatidae , Belostoma subspinosum (Palisot de Beauvois, 1920) and B. boscii Le Peletier and Serville, 1825 have been reported from St. Croix and Puerto Rico ( Barber 1939) with Lethocerus annulipes (Herrich-Scaffer, 1948) from all the Virgin Islands ( Menke 1962), and in the Ranatridae, eight species have been reported from the Caribbean. Ranatra jamaicana Drake and De Carlo, 1953 and R. mediana Montandon, 1910 are known from Jamaica ( Drake and DeCarlo 1953; Lanigan and Hyslop 2011), and R. fabricii Guérin-Méneville, 1857 and R. sagrai Drake and De Carlo, 1953 are known from Cuba ( Muñoz Riviaux et al. 2010; Naranjo et al. 2010). Nieser (1969b) described Ranatra galatae from Curaçao, with R. obscura Montandon, 1907 and R. zeteki Drake and De Carlo, 1953 also reported from the island. Barber (1939) described R. insulata from Puerto Rico.

The notonectids Buenoa gracilis Truxal, 1953 , B. pallens (Champion, 1901) and B. platycnemis (Fieber, 1851) are recorded from all three US Virgin Islands ( Truxal 1953; Nieser 1967, 1969c). Buenoa pallipes (Fabricius, 1803) is reported from St. Thomas, St. John, and the Greater Antilles ( Barber 1939; Truxal 1953; Nieser 1967), B. scimitra from St. Thomas, St. Croix, Cuba, and the Lesser Antilles, and B. antigone antigone (Kirkaldy, 1899) has records from St. Croix, Puerto Rico, and other islands ( Truxal 1953; Nieser 1967, 1969c; Naranjo et al. 2010; Lanigan and Hyslop 2011). Buenoa confusa Truxal, 1953 , occurs throughout North America, with records from Grand Cayman and Grenada ( Truxal 1953). Eight Buenoa spp. have been reported from Cuba, five from Jamaica, seven from Curaçao and nearby islands, and six from Puerto Rico ( Wolcott 1948a; Truxal 1953; Maldonado Capriles and Navarro 1967; Nieser 1967, 1969c; Muñoz Riviaux et al. 2010; Naranjo et al. 2010; Lanigan and Hyslop 2011). The genus Notonecta is also reported in many of the works above, with N. indica having a broad Caribbean distribution that spans 14 Caribbean islands, including St. Croix and St. Thomas, Central America, and the United States ( Nieser 1967). Notonecta confusa Hungerford, 1930 has been reported from Cuba ( Muñoz Riviaux et al. 2010; Naranjo et al. 2010).

Among water striders, Rheumatobates imitator (Uhler, 1894) is known from the Caribbean, including the Virgin Islands, while R. clanis Drake and Harris, 1932 , R. vegatus Drake and Harris, 1932 , R. minutus Hungerford,1936 , and R. meinerti Schroeder, 1931 , are all known from other parts of the Caribbean ( Maldonado Capriles and Navarro 1967; Spangler et al. 1985; Naranjo et al. 2010; Lanigan and Hyslop 2011) and may show up in the Virgin Islands at some point. Similarly, the water striders Brachymetra albinervis (Amyot and Serville, 1843) , Metrobates laudatus Drake and Harris, 1937 , Limnogonus franciscanus (Stål, 1859) and Trepobates taylori (Kirkaldi, 1899) have been reported from the Antilles ( Wolcott 1948a; Nieser 1970a; Naranjo et al. 2010; Lanigan and Hyslop 2011). Naranjo et al. (2010) report 14 species of Gerridae in their surveys from Cuba, with four additional taxa representing undescribed species or novel morphotypes. In the Veliidae , Rhagovelia plumbea Uhler, 1894 has a broad Caribbean distribution and has been collected from Puerto Rico and St. Croix ( Barber 1939; Bacon 1956; Molano et al. 2018). The congeneric R. collaris was also collected at multiple sites from Puerto Rico ( Barber 1939). Four Microvelia species were reported from Puerto Rico, with M. pulchella and M. robusta also found in St. Thomas ( Barber 1939). Cordeiro and Moreira (2015) list M. longipes as present in the USVI, but they did not provide a reference and their collections were from Brazil, making this record uncertain. Only one Veliidae was found in our samples.

Two hydrometrids are known from the region: Hydrometra caraiba Guérin-Meneville, 1856 is known from all the Great Antilles, plus Guadeloupe, Marie-Galante and Martinique, while H. australis Say, 1823 is known from Cuba, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico ( Nieser 1970b). Either may be found in the Virgin Islands in the future.