Molecular phylogeny of the pond skaters (Gerrinae), discussion of the fossil record and a checklist of species assigned to the subfamily (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Gerridae)

Abstract

The phylogenetic relationships among selected species and genera of Gerrinae (Heteroptera: Gerridae) were investigated in a parsimony analysis of 2268 bp o f D N A sequence data from the genes encoding C O I + I1, 16S rRNA and 28S rRNA. The taxa represented 12 of 15 recognized genera of Gerrinae and with outgroup taxa from all other subfamilies of Gerridae, including three of five recognized genera of Eotrechinae, which is considered the sister-group of Gerrinae. The resulting phylogeny shows that Gerrinae is not monophyletic, since a clade comprising Gerris, Aquarius, Limnoporus, Tachygerris, Eurygerris and Gigantometra is more closely related to representatives of the subfamily Eotrechinae than to a clade comprising Limnogonus, Neogerris, Limnometra, Tenagogerris and Tenagogonus. The two currendy recognized gerrine tribes, Tachygerrini and Gerrini, were also paraphyletic, since Eurygerris was sister-group to Gigantometra, while Tachygerris was sister-group to Limnoporus + Aquarius + Gerris. Limnogonus and Neogerris were found to be strongly supported sister-taxa, and their sister-group was a clade comprising Limnometra, Tenagogerris and Tenagogonus, none o f which were monophyletic. Finally, Aquarius chilensis (Berg, 1881) was sister-group to a clade comprising Aquarius amplus (Drake & Harris, 1938), A. remigis (Say, 1832) and A. remigoides (Gallant & Fairbaim, 1993), recognized as the A. remigis species group, and the entire clade was sister-group to Gerris. Based on the phylogenetic reconstruction, we oudine possible diagnostic character combinations for a future revision o f the Gerrinae and discuss the fossil record. While some of the relationships reinstate earlier ideas, e.g., Limnogonus and Neogerris being sister groups, many others are poorly supported and poorly diagnosed, and therefore, we retain from drawing taxonomic conclusions until data is available from the remaining genera, which can support a future generic revision of the Gerrinae. The updated checklist o f species assigned to the subfamily is there fore based on the established taxonomy.

The Semiaquatic Gerromorphans

“…The former is cosmopolitan and represented on the Neotropical Region by the genera Aquarius , with two predominantly temperate species extending into Mexico and Guatemala and one species occurring on Chile and Peru, out of its 17 described species; Gerris , with a mainly Nearctic species reaching Mexico and one species endemic to the same country, from its 30 known species; Limnogonus , with seven species and subspecies ranging from Mexico to Argentina, out of a total of 28 species; and Neogerris , with eight species that range from the Caribbean to Argentina, out of a diversity of 13 species. The tribe Tachygerrini, restricted to Tropical America, is composed by Eurygerris , with nine species that range from Mexico to the Andean countries of South America; and Tachygerris , with 13 species distributed from Mexico to South America, except Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay (Damgaard et al 2014 ).…”

New water strider species of Eurymetra from Madagascar (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Gerridae)

“…; ROMÁN-PALACIOS et al 2018) and eleven the freshwater. Of these eleven species, seven are endemic to the region (Madagascar and Reunion), one has an endemic subspecies, and three are non-endemic (ANDERSEN 1982, POLHEMUS & POLHEMUS 2002, DAMGAARD et al 2014, ROMÁN-PALACIOS et al 2018. Of the subfamily Halobatinae -which is speciose in Asia (e.g., CHEN & NIESER 1993a, b;CHEN & ZETTEL 1999;TRAN & ZETTEL 2019) -only two freshwater species were reported from Madagascar: Eurymetra madagascariensis Poisson, 1945and Eurymetropsielloides milloti Poisson, 1956(POISSON 1945, 1956.…”

Cinco nuevas especies de Tachygerris (Hemiptera: Gerridae: Gerrinae) y nuevos registros para Colombia

“…Este género se puede diferenciar de otros por tener antenas tan o más largas que el cuerpo, segmento I de las antenas ligeramente curvo, rostro alcanzando la mitad del mesosterno, fémur anterior de los machos ligeramente curvo y engrosado, espinas conexivales de las hembras por lo general sobrepasando el ápice del abdomen (Morales-Castaño y Molano-Rendón 2009) y lóbulos apicales reducidos en las segundas gonapofisis de las hembras (Damgaard et al 2014). Drake (1957a) establece el género Tachygonus para incluir las especies americanas de Tenagogonus, y designa a Tenagogonus adamsoni Drake, 1957 como la especie tipo.…”

“…Tachygerris se distribuye en la región Neotropical desde México hasta Paraguay (Morales-Castaño y Molano-Rendón 2009) y contiene doce especies actualmente (Damgaard et al 2014). En Colombia son reconocidas seis especies (Damgaard et al 2014) de las cuales dos han sido descritas recientemente: T. tumaquensis Padilla-Gil, 2010 y T. tucanensis Morales-C & CastroVargas, 2013 de las regiones Pacífica y Amazónica respectivamente.…”

“…En Colombia son reconocidas seis especies (Damgaard et al 2014) de las cuales dos han sido descritas recientemente: T. tumaquensis Padilla-Gil, 2010 y T. tucanensis Morales-C & CastroVargas, 2013 de las regiones Pacífica y Amazónica respectivamente. En el presente trabajo se describen cinco nuevas especies de Tachygerris, se presentan nuevos registros y una clave para las especies que se registran en Colombia.…”