Topic
Assassin bug
About: Assassin bug is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 239 publications have been published within this topic receiving 2674 citations.
Papers published on a yearly basis
Papers
TL;DR: A cladistic analysis of higher‐level taxa of Reduviidae based on 162 morphological characters and 75 ingroup and outgroup species is presented, which supports a clade formed by paraphyletic Salyavatinae’+ Sphaeridopinae, renders Vesciinae non‐monophyletic, and demonstrates the polyphyly ofReduviinae.
Abstract: With more than 6600 species worldwide, Reduviidae (Insecta: Heteroptera), or assassin bugs, form the second largest and one of the most diverse groups of true bugs The poor condition of the higher-level classification of Reduviidae is reflected by the facts that different authors recognize between 21 and 32 subfamily-level names and that Reduviidae were never subjected to a rigorous cladistic analysis using an exemplar approach In the present study, a cladistic analysis of higher-level taxa of Reduviidae based on 162 morphological characters and 75 ingroup and outgroup species is presented Twenty-one subfamily-level taxa of Reduviidae were examined, accounting for 28 tribes In addition to characters previously used for diagnosis in Reduviidae, information on recently published character complexes is used in the present analysis, supplemented with new character information gathered specifically for this project Reduviidae are supported as a monophyletic group with Pachynomidae as their sister taxon The major results of this study are the support of a sistergroup relationship of Hammacerinae with the remaining Reduviidae, the monophyly of the Phymatine Complex, the relatively basal position of Harpactorinae within Reduviidae as well as a novel hypothesis on the relationships within this group, and the sistergroup relationship of Ectrichodiinae + Tribelocephalinae and their placement in a clade that also contains Emesinae, Saicinae, and Visayanocorinae The analysis further supports a clade formed by paraphyletic Salyavatinae + Sphaeridopinae, renders Vesciinae non-monophyletic, and demonstrates the polyphyly of Reduviinae Pseudocetherinae are shown to group with some Reduviinae Triatominae are supported as a monophyletic group and are nested among additional Reduviinae and Stenopodainae
189 citations
TL;DR: The tight (Ki = 2 × 10(‐13) M) binding of rhodniin to thrombin is the result of the sum of steric and charge complementarity of the amino‐terminal domain towards the active‐site cleft, and of the electrostatic interactions between the carboxy‐ terminal domain and the exosite.
Abstract: Rhodniin is a highly specific inhibitor of thrombin isolated from the assassin bug Rhodnius prolixus The 26 Angstrum crystal structure of the non-covalent complex between recombinant rhodniin and bovine alpha-thrombin reveals that the two Kazal-type domains of rhodniin bind to different sites of thrombin The amino-terminal domain binds in a substrate-like manner to the narrow active-site cleft of thrombin; the imidazole group of the P1 His residue extends into the S1 pocket to form favourable hydrogen/ionic bonds with Asp189 at its bottom, and additionally with Glu192 at its entrance The carboxy-terminal domain, whose distorted reactive-site loop cannot adopt the canonical conformation, docks to the fibrinogen recognition exosite via extensive electrostatic interactions The rather acidic polypeptide linking the two domains is displaced from the thrombin surface, with none of its residues involved in direct salt bridges with thrombin The tight (Ki = 2 x 10(-13) M) binding of rhodniin to thrombin is the result of the sum of steric and charge complementarity of the amino-terminal domain towards the active-site cleft, and of the electrostatic interactions between the carboxy-terminal domain and the exosite
185 citations
TL;DR: The integration of molecular phylogenetics with fossil and life history data as presented in this paper provides insights into the evolutionary history of reduviids and clears the way for in-depth evolutionary hypothesis testing in one of the most speciose clades of predators.
Abstract: Assassin bugs are one of the most successful clades of predatory animals based on their species numbers (∼6,800 spp.) and wide distribution in terrestrial ecosystems. Various novel prey capture strategies and remarkable prey specializations contribute to their appeal as a model to study evolutionary pathways involved in predation. Here, we reconstruct the most comprehensive reduviid phylogeny (178 taxa, 18 subfamilies) to date based on molecular data (5 markers). This phylogeny tests current hypotheses on reduviid relationships emphasizing the polyphyletic Reduviinae and the blood-feeding, disease-vectoring Triatominae, and allows us, for the first time in assassin bugs, to reconstruct ancestral states of prey associations and microhabitats. Using a fossil-calibrated molecular tree, we estimated divergence times for key events in the evolutionary history of Reduviidae. Our results indicate that the polyphyletic Reduviinae fall into 11–14 separate clades. Triatominae are paraphyletic with respect to the reduviine genus Opisthacidius in the maximum likelihood analyses; this result is in contrast to prior hypotheses that found Triatominae to be monophyletic or polyphyletic and may be due to the more comprehensive taxon and character sampling in this study. The evolution of blood-feeding may thus have occurred once or twice independently among predatory assassin bugs. All prey specialists evolved from generalist ancestors, with multiple evolutionary origins of termite and ant specializations. A bark-associated life style on tree trunks is ancestral for most of the lineages of Higher Reduviidae; living on foliage has evolved at least six times independently. Reduviidae originated in the Middle Jurassic (178 Ma), but significant lineage diversification only began in the Late Cretaceous (97 Ma). The integration of molecular phylogenetics with fossil and life history data as presented in this paper provides insights into the evolutionary history of reduviids and clears the way for in-depth evolutionary hypothesis testing in one of the most speciose clades of predators.
170 citations
TL;DR: A Sri Lankan Emesinae bug, Myiophanes greeni Distant (Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Emesinasinae) is reported for the first time from India.
Abstract: BACKGROUND While surveying bugs and spiders in the caves of Satara District, Maharashtra, one of us (SK) collected a thread-legged bug associated with a spider web. NEW INFORMATION A Sri Lankan Emesinae bug, Myiophanes greeni Distant (Heteroptera: Reduviidae: Emesinae) is reported for the first time from India. The species is redescribed with several illustrations including male genitalia.
125 citations
TL;DR: A new species of Reduviidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) from Caatinga ecosystem, Pyrrhosphodrus caatingensis Lapischies Forero sp.
Abstract: A new species of Reduviidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) from Caatinga ecosystem, Pyrrhosphodrus caatingensis Lapischies & Forero sp. nov., is described. The new species is distinguished from its congeners by its overall reddish coloration with black areas; by the black legs, with femora with a subapical yellowish broad ring, tibiae with apical and subapical yellowish annuli; and genital characters. Comments about the biology, feeding habits, habitus, genitalic images, and a distribution map of the new species are given. In addition, the following synonymy is proposed: Pyrrhosphodrus militaris Stal, 1866 = P. theresina (Berg, 1879), syn. nov. A key to separate the known species of Pyrrhosphodrus Stal, 1866 is provided.
121 citations
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Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 11 |
| 2020 | 15 |
| 2019 | 18 |
| 2018 | 13 |
| 2017 | 9 |
| 2016 | 18 |