Geotomus punctulatus

Geotomus punctulatus also known as the Cornish shieldbug, is a species of burrowing bug in the family Cydnidae, found in Europe.

Geotomus punctulatus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Family: Cydnidae
Genus: Geotomus
Species:
G. punctulatus
Binomial name
Geotomus punctulatus
(A. Costa, 1847)
Synonyms
  • Cydnus punctulatus A. Costa, 1847[1]

Description

A small black shieldbug, 3.5 mm to 4.5 mm in length, with sparse, long hairs around the head, forewings and pronotum. The corium and rear margin of the pronotum often has reddish markings.[2] It feeds on lady's bedstraw (Galium verum) in sparsely vegetated areas of loose sand in sand dunes.[3]

Distribution and status

The species is widely distributed in the southern Palaearctic from Great Britain to Japan.[4] In Great Britain it has been found in the towans at Whitesand Bay, near Sennen Cove, Cornwall for over one hundred years and two specimens were taken from Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan in the 19th-century.[3] The population is not known but probably numbers in the hundreds rather than thousands. In 1962 it was present ″in considerable numbers″ and on 31 May 1882 it was numerous.[4] This location is above a popular beach so is under threat from excessive public pressure.[3]

gollark: *badness*
gollark: People who want them having children GOOD. People who do not want them having children BAD.
gollark: no.
gollark: > By using potatOS, agreeing to be bound by these terms, misusing potatOS, installing potatOS, reading about potatOS, knowing about these terms, knowing anyone who is bound by these terms, disusing potatOS, reading these terms, or thinking of anything related to these terms, you agree to be bound by these terms both until the last stars in the universe burn out and the last black holes evaporate and retroactively, arbitrarily far into the past.
gollark: So I don't want to actually have to manage one or several.

References
  1. "Geotomus punctulatus (A. Costa, 1847)". Fauna Europaea. Retrieved 24 April 2020.
  2. "Geotomus punctulatus Cornish Shieldbug". British Bugs. Retrieved 24 April 2020.
  3. Alexander, K N A (2009). Hemiptera. In CISFBR, Red Data Book for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (2nd ed.). Praze-an-Beeble: Croceago Press. p. 217. ISBN 978 1 901685 01 5. Retrieved 24 April 2020.
  4. Moris, M G (1987). Shirt, D B (ed.). Hemiptera: Heteroptera. In British Red Data Books: 2. Insects. Peterborough: Nature Conservancy Council. p. 56. ISBN 0 86139 380 5.


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