File: <hygrobii.htm> [For educational purposes only] Glossary <Principal Natural Enemy Groups > <Citations> <Home>

COLEOPTERA, Hygrobiidae -- <Images> & <Juveniles>

Please refer also to the following links for details on this group:

Hygrobiidae =, Link 1

Hygrobiidae is a small family that is closely related to Dytiscidae. They are aquatic, living in ponds rather than streams. Food preferences of Hygrobia hermani F. (= Pelobius tardus Hbst.) were studied by Balfour-Browne (1922a). Adults are found in mud at the bottom of ponds, and females lay their eggs in rows on the submerged stems of aquatic plants. The larvae feed on worms and the immature stages of the less active aquatic insects. The mature larva leaves the water to pupate, and forms a cells in the soil 5 cm. or more beneath the surface. A single generation occurs annually, and overwintering is as adults in the mud at the pond bottom (Clausen 1940).

= = = = = = = = = = = =

References: Please refer to <biology.ref.htm>, [Additional references may be found at: MELVYL Library]

Alarie, Y., R. G. Beutel & C. H. S. Watts. 2004: Larval morphology of three species of Hygrobiidae (Coleoptera: Adephaga: Dytiscoidea) with phylogenetic considerations. European journal of entomology, 101: 293-311. PDF

Britton, E. B. 1981: The Australian Hygrobiidae (Coleoptera). Journal of the Australian Entomological Society, 20: 83-86. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-6055.1981.tb01004.x

Dettner, K. K.. 2005: 7.5. Hygrobiidae, Régimbart, 1879. Pp. 85-90 in: Beutel, R.G.; Leschen, R.A.B. (volume eds.) Coleoptera, beetles. Volume 1: Morphology and systematics (Archostemata, Adephaga, Myxophaga, Polyphaga partim). In: Kristensen, N.P. & Beutel, R.G. (eds.) Handbook of zoology. A natural history of the phyla of the animal kingdom. Volume IV. Arthropoda: Insecta. Part 38. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter.

Nilsson, A. N. 2006: Which name is valid – Hygrobiidae or Paelobiidae? Latissimus, 21: 37-39. ISSN: 0966-2235

Nillson, A. N. & B. J. Van Vondel. 2005: Amphizoidae, Aspidytidae, Haliplidae, Noteridae and Paelobiidae (Coleoptera, Adephaga). World catalogue of insects, 7. Stenstrup: Apollo Books.

Topkara, E. T. & S. Balik. 2008: Short note. First record of the family Hygrobiidae (Coleoptera: Adephaga) from Turkey. Annales de la Société entomologique de France (n.s.), 44: 315-316. ISSN: 0037-9271

Catalogue of Palearctic Coleoptera. Vol. 1 ed. I. Lobl, & A. Smetana, Apollo Books, Stenstrup, Denmark, 2003 and 2004 ISBN 87-88757-73-0, p.35