Volume : I, Issue : III, August - 2012

A new species of Rhagovelia Mayr, 1865 from India

V. K. Khandelwal

Abstract :

Rhagovelia Mayr, 1865 is a genus of family Vellidae. It is hereto represented by two species viz.R.nigricans Burn.1835 and R. ravana Kirkaldy 1902. One new species of the genus Rhagovelia (Neorhagovelia) yamunae sp. nov. is described from India.                   

The Vellidae are best known of all aquatic hemiptera of the world and are extremely common in Indian waters. The members of the family are easily differentiated from the related family Gerridae based on hind leg not surpassing beyond the tip of abdomen and the presence of median longitudinal groove on vertex. Rhagovelia Mayr, 1865 belongs to the subfamily Rhagoveliinae China & Usinger1949 of the family Vellidae. The genus Rhagovelia Mayr, 1865 are easily recognized from the members of other genera due to elongated body, long antenna with 3rd and 4th joints moderately slender, intermediate, and posterior tarsi equal or sub equal in length.

Material and Methods: Specimens for the present study have been collected from the crevices of holy riverbank of Yamuna and in order to study the specimens, dried specimens were softened in alcohol and macerated in 10% KOH solution to remove the genital capsule and dissected to study the structural details of mouthparts, eyes, antennae, genitalia etc. All drawings were being made from camera lucida. For comparative study, the data collected from World Wide Web. 

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Article: Download PDF   DOI : 10.36106/ijsr  

Cite This Article:

V.K. Khandelwal, A new species of Rhagovelia Mayr, 1865 from India, International Journal of Scientific Research, Vol.I, Issue.III August 2012


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