Coleorrhyncha
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
|
Peloridiidae |
Coleorrhyncha is traditionally considered a suborder of Hemiptera, though there are alternative classifications in which it is treated as an infraorder within the suborder Prosorrhyncha, in which case it is called Peloridiomorpha (see the Heteroptera and Prosorrhyncha pages for a discussion). The group consists of only a single Gondwanan family, Peloridiidae, which comprises only 13 genera and fewer than 30 species. They are rarely-seen, peculiarly lumpy, flattened bugs found in Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, and the southern tip of South America. Their close resemblance and relationship to some early Mesozoic fossils (Progonocimex) qualifies them as "living fossils". They are important phylogenetically because they contain some features that resemble Heteroptera and some that are more akin to Auchenorrhyncha; their exact position within the Hemiptera is still somewhat contentious, as are the various attempts to fit them into the classification.
[edit] Images
- Peloridium hammoniorum http://homepage.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/Andre.Mursch/14.htm
