Coleorrhyncha or Peloridiomorpha, also known as moss bugs or beetle bugs, are a suborder of

Hemiptera Hemiptera (; ) is an order (biology), order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising over 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, Reduviidae, assassin bugs, Cimex, bed bugs, and shield bugs. ...

and represent an ancient lineage of moss-feeding insects. They show some similarities to the

Heteroptera The Heteroptera are a group of about 40,000 species of insects in the order Hemiptera. They are sometimes called "true bugs", though that name more commonly refers to the Hemiptera as a whole. "Typical bugs" might be used as a more unequivocal al ...

but have been considered distinct. It has a single extant family, the

Peloridiidae The Peloridiidae or moss bugs are a family of true bugs, comprising eighteen genera and thirty-four species. They are small, ranging in length from 2 to 4 mm, rarely seen, peculiarly lumpy, flattened bugs found in Patagonia (Argentina and Chi ...

. They are in length, and feed on moss and liverworts. They have wings in some species which are reduced in others but all species are flightless and live in damp moss habitats and are associated with the distribution of ''

Nothofagus ''Nothofagus'', also known as the southern beeches, is a genus of 43 species of trees and shrubs native to the Southern Hemisphere in southern South America (Chile, Argentina) and Australasia (east and southeast Australia, New Zealand, New Gui ...

'' trees in Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, and South America, which all were formerly part of the supercontinent

Gondwana Gondwana () was a large landmass, often referred to as a supercontinent, that formed during the late Neoproterozoic (about 550 million years ago) and began to break up during the Jurassic period (about 180 million years ago). The final stages ...

. Three other major families have been established on the basis of fossils:

Progonocimicidae The Progonocimicidae are an extinct family of true bugs in the suborder Coleorrhyncha. Progonocimicidae fossils have been found in Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America. Families preserved in the fossil record of Coleorrhyncha include the e ...

(Late Permian to Late Cretaceous) Karabasiidae (Jurassic-Early Cretaceous) and Hoploridiidae (Early Cretaceous), which have been found in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The oldest member of Coleorrhyncha is '' Permoridium'' from the early Permian (

Asselian In the geologic timescale, the Asselian is the earliest geochronologic age or lowermost chronostratigraphic stage of the Permian. It is a subdivision of the Cisuralian Epoch or Series. The Asselian lasted between and million years ago (Ma) ...

to early

Sakmarian In the geologic timescale, the Sakmarian is an age or stage of the Permian. It is a subdivision of the Cisuralian Epoch or Series. The Sakmarian lasted between 293.52 and million years ago (Ma). It was preceded by the Asselian and followed by t ...

~290-300 million years ago) of Germany, which appears to be more closely related to Peloridiidae than to any of the extinct families. The Coleorrhyncha were earlier included within the "Homoptera" but based on studies of their morphological similarities as well as molecular

phylogeny A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological spe ...

are now considered as a sister group of the Heteroptera. The fossil family Progonocimicidae was formerly considered as early

or survivors from a stem group of Heteropteroides but based on morphology, Popov called them an ancestral sub-group of the Coleorrhyncha, and this has been followed by subsequent authors.

References

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