Affiliation:
1. Department of Entomology and MOA Key Lab of Pest Monitoring and Green Management, College of Plant Protection, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
2. College of Forestry, Beijing Forestry University, Qinghua East Road 35, Beijing 100083, China
3. Environment and Plant Protection Institute, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Haikou 571101, China
Abstract
Species in Ectrichodiinae are known for their prey specialization on millipedes. However, knowledge of the morphological adaptations to this unique feeding habit was limited. In the current study, we examined the microstructures of the antennae, mouthparts, and legs of four millipede feeding ectrichodiines, Ectrychotes andreae (Thunberg, 1888), Haematoloecha limbata Miller, 1953, Labidocoris pectoralis (Stål, 1863), and Neozirta eidmanni (Taueber, 1930), and compared them with those of three species of tribelocephalines, a group closely related to Ectrichodiinae. On the antennae, we found four types of antennal sensilla. On the mouthparts, we recognized four types of labial sensilla. Sampled ectrichodiines have distinctly more and denser slightly transverse ridges on the external side of mandibles than tribelocephalines. E. andreae and H. limbata possess numerous small papillae fringed with densely arranged finger-print-like grains on the trochanter and femur; these probably facilitate the immobilization of prey. Overall, our study illustrates, at a microstructural level, the remarkable morphological adaption of prey manipulation in ectrichodiine, and has enhanced our understanding about stenophagy in the family Reduviidae.
Funder
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Subject
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,General Immunology and Microbiology,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
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