The Ochteridae comprise a small family of insects. Eight

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

with about 80 species have been described. They occur worldwide along the shore of various types of water (for example, streams and ponds) and the greatest diversity is in tropical regions. They are "true bugs", being members of the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

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 are in the

suborder Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...

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 ...

. Ochteridae commonly are known as the velvety shore bugs. They resemble the

Saldidae Saldidae, also known as shore bugs, are a family of insects in the order Hemiptera (''true bugs''). They are oval-shaped and measure when mature. Typically they are found near shorelines or the marginal growths near freshwater bodies, estuaries ...

shore bugs and have lengths ranging from . Most of the Ochteridae inhabit the edges of ponds and other still waters. Little is known of their habits, but all are believed to be predatory on small invertebrates, such as larvae of flies. They tend to be lively and capable of active leaping and flight. The immature instars of some species camouflage themselves extremely effectively by gluing sand grains and similar particles to their backs, and so do the adults of a few species. They are not conspicuous and most species are physically small and occur patchily and in small numbers; these factors make them difficult to study and partly explain why there is a poverty of detailed knowledge of the biology of most species.

Genera

These eight genera belong to the family Ochteridae: * '' Angulochterus'' Yao, Zhang and Ren in Yao et al., 2011^{i c g} * '' Floricaudus'' Yao, Ren and Shih in Yao et al., 2011^{i c g} * '' Megochterus'' Jaczewski, 1934^{i c g} * ''

Ochterus ''Ochterus'' is a genus of velvety shore bugs in the family Ochteridae The Ochteridae comprise a small family of insects. Eight genera with about 80 species have been described. They occur worldwide along the shore of various types of water ...

'' Latreille, 1807^{i c g b} * '' Ocyochterus'' Drake and Gómez-Menor, 1954^{i c g} * '' Pristinochterus'' Yao, Cai and Ren, 2007^{i c g} * '' Propreocoris'' Popov, Dolling & Whalley, 1994^g * '' Riegerochterus'' Popov and Heiss, 2014^{i c g} Data sources: i = ITIS, c = Catalogue of Life, g = GBIF, b = Bugguide.net

References

Nepomorpha Heteroptera families {{nepomorpha-stub