Identification of Hemiptera

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05.07.2009 23:42, sealor

"Color doesn't matter to them. You have to take pictures of their noses and look at them...
By the way-where is "there"? "
barry, so, in Ukraine

barry, Musolin, quite interesting, if this is a harmful turtle or a Moor turtle, then it is very interesting that there are quite a lot of these "usually" colored turtles in the surrounding area, they scurry around in the litter and get caught in flight. And these beetles are present in a certain area, near the reservoir, there were quite a lot of them, several individuals, and all are monotonously black. Stingers did not take one of them with them, and they were shot "superficially". If these are melanists, then their accumulation is surprising, but if it is seasonal variability, then it is strange that most of them are ordinary, everywhere except in that place..

06.07.2009 0:36, Dmitrii Musolin

the biotope is just very suitable for a place for summer diapause (estivation). And the harmful turtle has it... I just don't remember if anyone wrote about the color change...

Here, I found it from the article:

The most detailed study of summer dormancy was carried out in the harmful turtle Eurygaster integriceps (Scutelleridae), a species of great economic importance.
The harmful turtle has a strictly monovoltaic development cycle, maintained throughout its range. Its active life takes about 2.5–3 months a year, the remaining 9-9. 5 months the turtle spends at
rest. Survival during such a long period of dormancy in seasons with dramatically different external conditions is supported by nutrients accumulated during pre-diapause nutrition. A completely unusual feature of Eurygaster beetles is the accumulation of not only fat reserves in the adipose body, but also half-digested food in the first part of the midgut (Fedotov, 1947). These reserves are important not only for survival during diapause, but also for maturing sexual products in the following spring.
The obligate summer diapause in the harmful turtle is formed in young bedbugs in June-July, i.e. by the time of harvesting of spikelets, with which this species is closely related. After a short but intensive pre-diapause feeding, bedbugs migrate to the estivation sites. In flat landscapes, these are forest belts, forest edges, forest clearings, and even parks and gardens. In the mountains, bedbugs rise quite high – up to 2500-2800 m. Estivation lasts about two months. During this time, bedbugs lose about 20% of the food reserves accumulated during pre-menopausal nutrition (Ushatinskaya, 1955). In autumn, when the heat subsides, bedbugs fall lower and overwinter in a state of obligate winter diapause. This often occurs in very dense clusters – up to 1175 adults per wormwood bush or 459 adults / m2 (Brown, 1962). On the plains, there is also a period of activity between the summer and winter diapause – small flights to forest belts, when bedbugs can feed on wild cereals and other plants. A rest break of about two weeks serves as a clear boundary between the summer and winter diapause. A deep summer diapause is observed in populations living in Central Asia; bedbugs in the Ciscaucasia and Crimea are characterized by much less deep dormancy – insects often go into an active state and move in the forest (Arnoldi, 1947).
The departure of the harmful turtle to the summer diapause in the conditions of the southern grain regions of Russia has a huge biological meaning, since with the harvesting of grain, not only the food supply is catastrophically narrowed and favorable biotopes are destroyed (Polivanova, 1960), but also the time of high depressing temperatures comes.

According to its origin, E. integriceps is a native of Near Asia (Arnoldi, 1947), where the life cycle of this species was formed in hot arid conditions, characterized by a short period of activity, short oviposition periods, rapid development of preimaginal stages, and a summer reproductive diapause that turns into winter. The ability to preserve protein-carbohydrate foods formed under these conditions created the prerequisites for early onset of active life and rapid maturation of eggs. It is assumed that the harmful turtle entered Europe in the 19th century following the expansion of grain crops, which provided it with a suitable food base, created favorable biotopes and advantages over other bread beetles in terms of avoiding parasites, mainly from egg-eaters (Polivanova, 1960). At the same time, once in new climatic conditions, the harmful turtle kept its life cycle unchanged. The young generation, regardless of the local food supply, strictly goes into the summer diapause, which after a short autumn activation of bedbugs is replaced by wintering.

(Saulich A. Kh., Musolin D. L., 2007. Seasons: a variety of seasonal adaptations and ecological mechanisms for controlling the seasonal development of hemiptera (Heteroptera) in temperate climates. In: Stekolnikov A. A. (ed.). Strategies of adaptation of terrestrial arthropods to unfavorable environmental conditions. Collection of articles dedicated to the memory of Professor Viktor Petrovichatyschenko (Proceedings of Biol. Research Institute of St. Petersburg State University, Issue 53). pp. 25-106.)
- - - pdf of this and others. articles on seasonal development of hemiptera are available. Write to me and I'll send it to you.