Jadera haematoloma

Taxobox | name = "Jadera haematoloma"
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
ordo = Hemiptera
familia = Rhopalidae
genus = "Jadera"
species = "J. haematoloma"
binomial = "Jadera haematoloma"
binomial_authority = (Herrich-Schäffer, 1847)

"Jadera haematoloma", the red-shouldered bug, goldenrain-tree bug or soapberry bug, is a species of true bug that lives in isolated populations throughout the southern United States and northern MexicoMead FW, Fasulo TR. [http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/trees/jadera_bugs.htm Scentless plant bugs, "Jadera" spp.] "Featured Creatures". July 2007. Last accessed 2008-08-08] . People who move to the southern states often confuse this species with the boxelder bug.

Description

"J. haematoloma" are typically 9.5 to 13.5 mm long and 3 to 4 mm wide, though the shortwinged form (brachyptera) usually is 7 to 8 mm long. Color is mostly black except for reddish eyes, shoulders, and border area of abdomen. Nymphs are mostly red with black shoulders, with the black portion extending rearward as they mature.

Distribution

For most of the twentieth century, little was know about the range of "J. haematoloma". Reports showed it to be present in Florida, Kansas, Colorado, Texas, Arizona, California, Alabama, Illinois, North Carolina, Missouri, Colorado, Iowa, as well as Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland. [Cite journal |year=1917 |title=Catalogue of the Hemiptera of America north of Mexico excepting the Aphididae, Coccidae, and Aleurodidae. |author=Van Duzee, E. P. |journal=University of California Publications, Technical Bulletins, Entomology |volume=2 |pages=i-xiv, 1-902] [Cite book |last=Blatchley |first=W.S. |title=Heteroptera or True Bugs of Eastern North America, with Especial Reference to the Faunas of Indiana and Florida. |publisher=The Nature Publishing Company |year=1926 |location=Indianapolis |pages=1166] [Cite book |last=Brimley |first=C.S. |title=The Insects of North Carolina, Being a List of the Insects of North Carolina and Their Near Relatives. |publisher=North Carolina Department of Agriculture |year=1938 |location=Raleigh |pages=560] [Cite journal |year=1944 |title=Contributions to a synopsis of the Hemiptera of Missouri, pt. III. Lygaeidae, Pyrrhocoridae, Piesmidae, Tingididae, Enicocephalidae, Phymatidae, Ploriaridae, Reduviidae, Nabidae. |author=Froeschner, R.C. |journal=American Midland Naturalist |volume=31 |pages=638-683] [Cite book |last=Slater |first=J.A. |coauthors=R.M. Baranowski |title=How to Know True Bugs |publisher=Wm. C. Brown |year=1978 |location=Dubuque, IA |pages=256] A study published in 1987, showed the distribution of "J. haematoloma" "revealed the close correspondence of records for the bug with the ranges of the" soapberry plants that serve as the insects native hosts. [Cite journal |year=1987 |title=Specialization of Jadera species (Hemiptera: Rhopalidae) on the seeds of Sapindaceae (Sapindales), and coevolutionary responses of defense and attack. |author=Carroll, S.P. |coauthors=E. Loye |journal=Annals of the Entomological Society of America |volume=80 |pages=373-378] In addition, isolated examples have been reported as far north as Minnesota. Outside of the United States, "J. haematoloma" is found south through Central America and the West Indies to Colombia and Venezuela. [Cite journal |quotes=no |url=http://fwie.fw.vt.edu/vnhs/pdf-files/pdf-full-articles/Full-Jadera.pdf |year=2005 |title="Jadera haematoloma", Another Insect on its Way North (Heteroptera: Rhopalidae) |author=Richard L. Hoffman |journal=Banisteria |volume=26 |pages=7-10]

Evolution

Two populations in southern Florida are particularly notable. The more southern of these two populations has colonized a native host soapberry bush, the balloon vine ("Cardiospermum corindum"). This vine produces berries of a fairly uniform size, which "J. haematoloma" feeds on by inserting its mouthparts (beak) through the berry's exterior and into the interior seeds. In the mid-1950s, a southeast Asian tree, the flat-podded goldenrain tree ("Koelreuteria elegans"), was introduced as an ornamental plant, and quickly escaped domestic use and grew wild. Significantly, the goldenrain tree can be colonized by "J. haematoloma", though its fruit is smaller and the seeds less deeply embedded than in the balloon vine.

In a seminal paper published in the scientific journal "Genetica" in 2001, it was shown that evolution that had taken place in this southernmost population of "J. haematoloma" in a period of only a few decades [Cite journal |quotes=no |url=http://www.carroll-loye.com/_dbase_upl/Genetica_2001.pdf |year=2001 |title=Genetic architecture of adaptive differentiation in evolving host races of the soapberry bug, "Jadera haematoloma" |author=Scott P. Carroll, Hugh Dingle, Thomas R. Famula & CharlesW. Fox |journal=Genetica |volume=112–113 |pages=257–272] . They showed that the beak length, which in the ancestral type was about 70% the length of the body, was only about 50% the body length in the insects that had colonized the non-native tree, though the size of the bugs themselves had not changed. In addition, they found that:

...derived bugs mature 25% more rapidly, are 20% more likely to survive, and lay almost twice as many eggs when reared on seeds of the introduced host rather than those of the native host. Fecundity is also twice as great as that of ancestral type bugs reared on either host, while egg mass is 20% smaller.

References

External links

* [http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/trees/jadera_bugs.htm scentless plant bug, "Jadera" spp.] on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site