Abstract
Heteroptera is a worldwide distributed group of insects inhabiting both terrestrial and aquatic habitats and has an important ecological role. A survey of aquatic and semiaquatic Heteroptera from Cuba is provided based on literature reports and field collections. General data on species geographical distribution are given, along with altitude and collection season. Representatives of 86 species and morphospecies of the infraorders Dipsocoromorpha, Leptopodomorpha, Gerromorpha and Nepomorpha are listed, distributed in 35 genera and 16 families were found. Based on distributional data, a preference for habitats of stagnant water or slow current and lower altitudes is inferred. Fifteen species are distributed throughout the entire island. A higher species diversity was found in the Eastern sector, with 53 species (61.63%), 16 of which (18.60%) are confined to this area. The strongest biological similarity was found between Eastern and Western sectors (25%), and the weakest between Western and Central sectors (14%).
Highlights
Most species of the aquatic and semiaquatic Heteroptera belong to the infraorders Leptopodomorpha, Gerromorpha and Nepomorpha, with the last two encompassing approximately 92% of the aquatic bugs diversity (Polhemus & Polhemus 2008)
According to Polhemus & Polhemus (2007), since the 1970’s, major taxonomic activity concerning Neotropical water bugs is represented by works on Suriname, adjacent Northern South America, the Caribbean and Mexico, with the exception of the monograph of the genus Rhagovelia Mayr, 1865 of the Western Hemisphere (Polhemus 1997)
According to Samek’s Biogeographic Sectors, Eastern Cuba bears a total of 53 species (61.63%), being the most representative sector, whereas Central Cuba is the poorest sector, with only 36 species (41.86%)
Summary
Most species of the aquatic and semiaquatic Heteroptera belong to the infraorders Leptopodomorpha, Gerromorpha and Nepomorpha, with the last two encompassing approximately 92% of the aquatic bugs diversity (Polhemus & Polhemus 2008). As for the Cuban island, there is a great gap of knowledge concerning this fauna, since only three significant taxonomic surveys of aquatic Heteroptera have been published up to date (Guérin-Méneville 1857, Alayo 1967, 1971, 1974, Nieser 1973, 1977). In this contribution, we present a review of the studies on
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