Notonecta ( Hungerford 1933 )

Young, Euan C., 2010, The taxonomic impediment of unrecognised flight polymorphism in Notonectidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera), Zootaxa 2535, pp. 35-48 : 37

Notonecta ( Hungerford 1933)

Appendix 1 shows that for 60 species in which the identities of the morphs are clear only the flying morph is described in 44, only the flightless morph in 7, and both morphs in 9.

In his introduction Hungerford notes that the older descriptions were based on colour and that it ‘is almost impossible to appropriate them with any degree of certainty’. The coloured figures in his revision, however, ‘will enable anyone to determine the specimens in the catch that are fully and typically colored. The teneral forms and the bichromatic species may be perplexing.’ In such cases he advises turning to structural characteristics.

Although Hungerford recognised that there were discrete colour forms in these species; he refers to bichromatic species or the occurrence of melanistic specimens in an otherwise pale species (his melanochroism), or specimens with a yellowish scutellum among flying ones, he does not appear to recognise that he is dealing with the effects of flight polymorphisms.