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Arocatus melanocephalus

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Arocatus melanocephalus, the elm seed bug, is a true bug in the family Lygaeidae. The species was initially described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1798, and Maximilian Spinola designated it to be the type species of the genus Arocatus in 1837. This bug is native to Europe but has been introduced to North America.

Arocatus melanocephalus
Illustration accompanying J. Guérin and J. Péneau's 1905 redescription[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Suborder: Heteroptera
Family: Lygaeidae
Genus: Arocatus
Species:
A. melanocephalus
Binomial name
Arocatus melanocephalus
(Fabricius, 1798)
Synonyms
  • Lygaeus melanocephalus Fabricius, 1798

Taxonomic history

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Amyot's illustration of female, showing ovipositor (c)

The Danish zoologist Johan Christian Fabricius named this species in 1798, placing it in the genus Lygaeus.[2] When the Italian entomologist Maximilian Spinola named the genus Arocatus in 1837, he designated Fabricius's Lygaeus melanocephalus as its type species.[3] In 1999, Jean Péricart designated a female lectotype in the University of Copenhagen Zoological Museum.[4]

Lygaeus pruinosus, a nomen nudum referring to this species, was named by Eduard Friedrich Eversmann in 1837.[4][5] Vasily Evgrafovich Yakovlev synonymized this name with A. melanocephalus in 1875.[6][7] The French entomologist Charles Jean-Baptiste Amyot referred to this species as Arocatus using his system of uninonial nomenclature[8] in a work later invalidated by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.[9]

Subspecies

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As of 2017, three subspecies are recognized: the nominate subspecies A. m. melanocephalus, A. m. austerus, and A. m. melandiscus.[10] Amyot gave the mononym Melandiscus for a specimen which Vittore Ghiliani had collected in Piedmont.[8] In 1869, the Italian entomologist Antonio Garbiglietti designated Amyot's melandiscus as a variety of A. melanocephalus.[11] This subspecies is found in Italy.[12] The subspecies A. m. austerus was named by the German entomologist Wolfgang Stichel in 1957.[13]

Biology and description

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Arocatus
★

A. longiceps

A. melanocephalus

Maximum-likelihood tree of some Arocatus species. Star denotes when the ability to sequester cardenolides was lost.[14]

A. melanocephalus, unlike many Lygaeinae species, only stored less than 7% of the cardenolides [3H]-ouabain or [3H]-digoxin ten days after being fed these substances.[14] A 2015 phylogenetic study of the subfamily Lygaeinae included four species of the genus Arocatus: A. aenescens, A. rusticus, A. rusticus, and A. melanocephalus; it placed A. melanocephalus in a clade with A. longiceps — the other Arocatus which could not store cardenolides.[14]

It has been found on Ulmus (elm) species, Platanus orientalis (old world sycamore),[4] Populus (poplar) species, as well as inside empty butterfly pupa covers.[15] It has also been recorded on Quercus (oak) and Alnus (alder) species.[16]

Adults produce a strong, unpleasant smell which is reminiscent of bitter almonds.[17] The scent glands' openings are on the metathorax, between the second and third pairs of legs.[18]

The body is dark red in color, and it is covered in short hairs. The head is black, and antennae are also mostly black, although on occasion the III and IV segments are partly red. The pronotum has a M-shaped spot.[4] The underbelly is orange, and adults measure 0.33 in (8.4 mm) in length.[19]

Distribution

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Illustration by A. J. Coquebert in 1799[20]

Within Europe, it has been found in the countries Andorra, Austria, Belgium,[citation needed] Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Moldova, Montenegro, the Netherlands,[21] Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia,[16] Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, and Ukraine.[4] However many of these central European records are quite old, dating to the late 19th and early 20th centuries; it is thought they had become rarer in Europe in the late 20th century due to Dutch elm disease killing many European elms.[22]

Starting in 1999, A. melanocephalus has infested buildings in northern Italian cities, particularly in the regions of Emilia Romagna, Veneto, and Friuli-Venezia Giulia.[17] These infestations occur in the summer, starting in late May or early June and ending in late September.[17] Some Italian researchers believe this might be due to global warming, and that the insects enter buildings to escape the summer heat.[17] The population increased in Turin in 2007, despite an increase in chemical insecticides; etofenprox is effective against this species but pyrethrum and rotenone were not.[23] Mass occurrences also increased in Germany in the early 21st century.[24]

In Asia, it has been found in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, China,[4] and Iran.[25] They have been recorded inside buildings in Yining, Xinjiang, China.[4]

In North America, A. melanocephalus have been found in the Canadian province of British Columbia,[26] and the American states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho,[19] Michigan,[27] Utah,[28] and Colorado.[29] It was introduced to the Nearctic realm in the 2000s.[19]

References

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  1. ^ Guérin, Joseph; Péneau, Joseph (1905). "4e Famille Lygæides". Hétéroptères. Faune entomologique armoricaine: Hémiptères. Vol. 1. p. 19.
  2. ^ Fabricius, Joh. Christ. (1798). Supplementum Entomologiae Systematicae. Hafnia: Proft et Storch. p. 540.
  3. ^ Spinola, Maximilien (1837). Essai sur les genres d'insectes appartenant á l'ordre des Hémiptères, Lin. ou Rhyngotes, Fab. et á la section des Hétéroptères, Dufour. Gènes: Yves Gravier. pp. 257–258.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Gao, Cuiqing; Kondorosy, Előd; Bu, Wenjun (2013). "A review of the genus Arocatus from Palaearctic and Oriental regions (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Lygaeidae)" (PDF). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 61 (2): 687–704.
  5. ^ Eversmann, Eduardo (1837). "Insecta Wolgam Fluvium inter et Montes Uralenses observata". Bulletin de la Société Impériale des Naturalistes de Moscou. 10 (1): 36.
  6. ^ Яковлева, В. (1875). "Полужесткокрылыя Hemiptera Heteroptera Русской фауны". Bulletin de la Société impériale des naturalistes de Moscou. 49 (4): 259.
  7. ^ Dellapé, Pablo M.; Henry, Thomas J. (2017). "Subspecies Arocatus melanocephalus melanocephalus (Fabricius, 1798)". Lygaeoidea Species File. 5.0. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  8. ^ a b Amyot, C. J. B. (1846). "Entomologie française. Rhynchotes. Subdivision II". Annales de la Société Entomologique de France. Ser. 2. 4: 80–81. [Reprinted Amyot, C.-J.-B. (1848). Entomologie française. Rhynchotes. Méthode mononymique. Paris: J.-B. Baillière. pp. 132–133.]
  9. ^ "Opinion 686. Amyot, Méthode mononymique: Placed on the Official Index of Rejected and Invalid Works in Zoological Nomenclature". Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature. 20 (6): 423. 1963.
  10. ^ Dellapé, Pablo M.; Henry, Thomas J. (2017). "Species Arocatus melanocephalus (Fabricius, 1798)". Lygaeoidea Species File. 5.0. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  11. ^ Garbiglietti, Antonio (1869). "Catalogus methodicus et synonymicus Hemipterorum Heteropterorum (Rhyngota Fabr.) Italiae indigenarum: Accedit descriptio aliquot specierum vel minus vel nondum cognitarum". Bollettino della Società Entomologica Italiana. 1: 112.
  12. ^ Dellapé, Pablo M.; Henry, Thomas J. (2017). "Subspecies Arocatus melanocephalus melandiscus Garbiglietti, 1869". Lygaeoidea Species File. 5.0. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  13. ^ Dellapé, Pablo M.; Henry, Thomas J. (2017). "Subspecies Arocatus melanocephalus austerus Stichel, 1957". Lygaeoidea Species File. 5.0. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  14. ^ a b c Bramer, Christiane; Dobler, Susanne; Deckert, Jürgen; Stemmer, Michael; Petschenka, Georg (2015). "Na+/K+-ATPase resistance and cardenolide sequestration: basal adaptations to host plant toxins in the milkweed bugs (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae: Lygaeinae)". Proceedings of the Royal Society. B: Biological Sciences. 282 (1805): 20142346. doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.2346. PMC 4389604. PMID 25808891.
  15. ^ Fent, Meral; Aktaç, Nihat (2008). "Anmerkungen zu einigen im Adultstadium überwinternden Heteropteren und ihren Überwinterungsplätzen in der (Türkischen) Provinz Edirne" (PDF). Heteropteron. 28: 11–15. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 January 2017.
  16. ^ a b Kment, Petr; Hradil, Karel; Baňař, Petr; Balvín, Ondřej; Cunev, Jozef; Ditrich, Tomáš; Jindra, Zdeněk; Roháčová, Jan (2013). "New and interesting records of true bugs (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) from the Czech Republic and Slovakia V" (PDF). Acta Musei Moraviae, Scientiae Biologicae. 98 (2). Brno: 518, 526. ISSN 1211-8788.
  17. ^ a b c d Maistrello, Lara; Lombroso, Luca; Pedroni, Elena; Reggiani, Alberto; Vanin, Stefano (2006). "Summer raids of Arocatus melanocephalus (Heteroptera, Lygaeidae) in urban buildings in Northern Italy: Is climate change to blame?". Journal of Thermal Biology. 31 (8): 594–598. doi:10.1016/j.jtherbio.2006.08.002.
  18. ^ Pedroni, Elena; Maistrello, Lara; Boldrini, Paola; Sbrenna, Anna Micciarelli; Sbrenna, Giovanni (2008). "Metathoracic scent glands in female adults of Arocatus melanocephalus" (PDF). Bulletin of Insectology. 61 (1): 173–175.
  19. ^ a b c Collman, Sharon J.; Bush, M. R. (March 2017). "Emerging Pests in Pacific Northwest Ornamentals". Pacific Northwest Insect Management Handbook. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  20. ^ Coquebert, Antonio Joanne (1799). Illustratio iconographica insectorum. Paris: Petrus Didot. p. 37; Pl. 9, Fig. 11.
  21. ^ Mulder, John (2021). "Mass invasion of Elm seed bugs Arocatus melanocephalus (Fabricius, 1798) (Hemiptera Lygaeidae) in apartments in the Netherlands". Biodiversity Journal. 12 (1): 229–230. doi:10.31396/Biodiv.Jour.2021.12.1.229.230.
  22. ^ Bianchi, Zuzana; Štepanovičová, Oľga (2003). "Some Notes on the Occurrence of Arocatus Genus (Heteroptera, Lygaeidae) in Slovakia" (PDF). Folia Faunistica Slovaca. 8: 75–77.
  23. ^ Ferracini, Chiara; Alma, Alberto (2008). "Arocatus melanocephalus a hemipteran pest on elm in the urban environment" (PDF). Bulletin of Insectology. 61 (1): 193–194.
  24. ^ Hoffmann, Hans-Jürgen; Terme, Lars (2012). "Zum Erstnachweis und Massenvorkommen der Ulmenwanze Arocatus melanocephalus (Fabricius, 1798) (Heteroptera, Lygaeidae) in Dortmund / Nordrhein-Westfalen" (PDF). Heteropteron. 38: 27–30. ISSN 1432-3761.
  25. ^ Linnavuori, Rauno E. (2007). "Studies on the Lygaeidae s. lat. (Heteroptera) of Gilan and the adjacent provinces in northern Iran" (PDF). Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae. 47: 59–60.
  26. ^ Acheampong, Susanna; Strong, Ward B.; Schwartz, Michael D.; Higgins, Robert J.; Thurston, Molly A.; Walker, Emma J.; Roberts, J. (2016). "First Canadian records for two invasive seed-feeding bugs, Arocatus melanocephalus (Fabricius, 1798) and Raglius alboacuminatus (Goeze, 1778), and a range extension for a third species, Rhyparochromus vulgaris (Schilling, 1829) (Hemiptera: Heteroptera)". Journal of the Entomological Society of British Columbia. 113: 74–78. Archived from the original on 5 December 2017.
  27. ^ Dickson, James David (11 December 2015). "Invasive bug found in Birmingham smells when crushed". The Detroit News. Archived from the original on 7 December 2017. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
  28. ^ Davis, Ryan (10 November 2016). "Ask an Expert: New Pest Found in Utah Homes - the Elm Seed Bug". Utah State University Extension. Archived from the original on 8 August 2017. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  29. ^ Shrader, Meredith (June 2018). "Elm Seed Bug: A New Nuisance Pest in Colorado Homes (Fact Sheet 5.619)". Colorado State University: Extension. Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 July 2018. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
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