Hebrus concinnus specimen from Wayne Co., North Carolina.
Hemiptera: Hebridae: Hebrus concinnus Uhler, 1894
Thinking about that spongillafly last week reminded me of other interesting and somewhat rare species I’ve come across, so this week I cover another uncommon insect I collected during my tenure as a masters student: the velvet water bug, Hebrus concinnus. Actually, I don’t know if the individuals I collected were this species, but they were definitely Hebrus. I found them crawling across the surface of a pool at the bottom of a waterfall along the Buffalo National River.
Velvet water bugs typically spend their lives walking along the surface of water sources, usually near submerged or saturated vegetation, like mosses on rocks. They’re fairly small insects, usually 2-2.3 mm (for this species, anyway), and are thought to be predators of small invertebrates (perhaps small, semi-aquatic collembolans?). They’re called velvet water bugs because their bodies are clothed in a short, dense fur coat (setae) that repels water and gives them a dull, velvety sheen.
The NCSU Insect Museum currently has only 2 species of Hebrus, represented by 10 specimens. Five are H. concinnus nymphs, which were all collected on the same day in 1970, at a single locality: 3 miles south of Seven Springs, in Wayne County, NC. They were scooped up from clumps of sphagnum in a watery ditch. Clearly we need more specimens, from different localities and different times! According to Bobb (1974) one can find H. concinnus from Quebec to Peru, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to collect more, as long as we’re looking in the right places.
Find out more:
Hebrus specimen data in GBIF. Currently 681 georeferenced records, almost all of which are in Europe. None are from the U.S.A.
M. L. Bobb. 1974. The aquatic and semi-aquatic Hemiptera of Virginia. The Insects of Virginia 7: iv, 196 pp.
Wikipedia’s Hebridae page actually provides a decent amount of information.
NCSU’s Hebrus concinnus specimens.
Nice photo of a live Hebrus sp. on BugGuide.
Tags: Heteroptera, NC insect of the week
