Haliplidae

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Protostomia
Cladus: Ecdysozoa
Cladus: Panarthropoda
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Crustacea
Superclassis: Allotriocarida
Classis: Hexapoda
Classis: Insecta
Cladus: Dicondylia
Subclassis: Pterygota
Cladus: Metapterygota
Infraclassis: Neoptera
Cladus: Eumetabola
Cladus: Endopterygota
Superordo: Coleopterida
Ordo: Coleoptera
Subordo: Adephaga

Familia: Haliplidae
Genera (5): Algophilus – Apteraliplus – Brychius – Haliplus – Peltodytes – Phalilus
Name

Haliplidae Aubé, 1836
References

Beutel, R.G.; Ruhnau, S. 1990: Phylogenetic analysis of the genera of Haliplidae (Coleoptera) based on characters of adults. Aquatic insects, 12(1): 1–17. DOI: 10.1080/01650429009361381
Jia, F. & Vondel, B. van 2011. Annotated catalogue of the Haliplidae of China with the description of a new species and new records from China (Coleoptera, Adephaga). ZooKeys 133: 1–17. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.133.1642 Open access. Reference page. 
Hendrich, L.; Vondel, B., van 2010: Haliplidae (Coleoptera). Pp. 237-242 in: Jäch, M.A. & Balke, M. (eds.): Water beetles of New Caledonia (part 1). Monographs on Coleoptera, 3 [not seen]
Kenner, R.D. 2008: Asymmetry of the sutural margins of elytra: implications for the generic classification of Haliplidae (Coleoptera). Coleopterists bulletin, 62(4): 461–473. DOI: 10.1649/1123.1
Majka, C.G. 2008: The aquatic Coleoptera of Prince Edward Island, Canada: new records and faunal composition. ZooKeys 2: 239–260. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.2.25 Reference page. 
Majka, C.G.; Vondel, B.J. van; Webster, R.P. 2009: The Haliplidae of Atlantic Canada: new records, distribution, and faunal composition. In: Majka, C.G.; Klimaszewski, J. (eds) Biodiversity, biosystematics, and ecology of Canadian Coleoptera II. ZooKeys, 22: 249–266. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.22.91
Nilsson, A.N. & Vondel, B.J. van 2005. Amphizoidae, Aspidytidae, Haliplidae, Noteridae and Paelobiidae (Coleoptera, Adephaga). World Catalogue of Insects 7. Stenstrup: Apollo Books. 171 pp. ISBN 87-88757-49-8. DOI: 10.1163/9789004473393 Paywall. Google Books. Reference page. 
Short, A.E.Z.; Torres, P.J.; Vondel, B.J. van 2010: A review of the crawling water beetles of Mongolia (Coleoptera: Haliplidae). Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 159: 205–212. ISSN: 0097-3157 PDF
Vondel, B.J., van 1995: Revision of the Haliplidae (Coleoptera) of the Australian region and the Moluccas. Records of the South Australian Museum, 28: 61–101. PDF
Vondel, B.J., van 2005: 7.2. Haliplidae Aubé, 1836. Pp. 64-72 in: Beutel, R.G.; Leschen, R.A.B. (volume eds.) Coleoptera, beetles. Volume 1: Morphology and systematics (Archostemata, Adephaga, Myxophaga, Polyphaga partim). In: Kristensen, N.P. & Beutel, R.G. (eds.) Handbook of zoology. A natural history of the phyla of the animal kingdom. Volume IV. Arthropoda: Insecta. Part 38. Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 3110171309 contents limited preview
Vondel, B.J., van 2007: World Catalogue of Haliplidae – corrections and additions, 1 (Coleoptera: Haliplidae). Koleopterologische rundschau, 77: 89–96.
Vondel, B.J., van 2009: Review of the Haliplidae of Myanmar with description of Haliplus volpei (Coleoptera). Tijdschrift voor entomologie, 152: 333–338. ISSN: 0040-7496 Abstract
Vondel, B.J., van 2010: Revision of the Haliplidae of the Afrotropical region, including North Africa (Coleoptera). Tijdschrift voor entomologie, 153(2): 239–314. abstract only seen
Vondel, B. van & Bergsten, J. 2012. Review of the Haliplidae of Madagascar, with descriptions of two new species (Coleoptera). Tijdschrift voor Entomologie 155(1): 57–66. DOI: 10.1163/221194312X651382 Open access. Reference page. 
Vondel, B.J., van 2013. World Catalogue of Haliplidae - corrections and additions, 2 (Coleoptera: Haliplidae). Koleopterologische Rundschau 83: 23–34. PDF. Reference page. 
Catalogue of Palearctic Coleoptera. Vol. 1 ed. I. Lobl, & A. Smetana, Apollo Books, Stenstrup, Denmark, 2003 and 2004
ISBN 87-88757-73-0, p.30

Links

Australian Faunal Directory
Haliplidae in SYNOPSIS OF THE DESCRIBED COLEOPTERA OF THE WORLD
Beutel, Rolf Georg 2008. Haliplidae. Crawling water beetles. Version 25 February 2008 (under construction) in The Tree of Life Web Project
Atlas of family Haliplidae of Russia
EoL

Vernacular names
čeština: Plavčíkovití
dansk: Vandtrædere
Deutsch: Wassertreter
English: Crawling water beetle
suomi: Pisarsukeltajat
français: Haliple
lietuvių: Dumbliavabaliai
polski: Flisakowate
русский: Плавунчики
svenska: Vattentrampare
中文: 沼梭甲科

The Haliplidae are a family of water beetles that swim using an alternating motion of the legs. They are therefore clumsy in water (compared e.g. with the Dytiscidae or Hydrophilidae), and prefer to get around by crawling. The family consists of about 200 species in 5 genera, distributed wherever there is freshwater habitat; it is the only extant member of superfamily Haliploidea. They are also known as crawling water beetles or haliplids.[1]

Description

The imagines of these beetles are generally oval in shape, with a very convex upperside, and are generally 1.5–5.0 mm (0.059–0.197 in) long. They are generally yellowish to light brown in color, frequently with light and dark patterns dotted with 10 or more rows of punctures on the elytra. The family's most distinctive characteristic is the large coxal plates of the hindlegs, which are immobile (though not fused in the centerline) and extend back along the underside to cover most of the abdomen base and the hindleg trochanters and femora. They are used as air storage supplementing the air carried under the elytra.[1][2]

The compound eyes are markedly protruding from a smallish head, which bears antennae with 11 segments set upon an antennophore with a conspicuously short base (scapus). The extension of the prosternum is broad, with a truncated tip, ending adjacent to the metasternal process. The metasternum has a complete transverse ridge. The slender legs have long swimming hairs on tibiae and tarsi, but are not flattened into "flippers". The foreleg tibiae lack the apparatus for antenna cleaning present in many other beetles. Unlike in other Adephaga, the hindwings are not folded under the elytra, but rolled together apically.[1][2]

Haliplidae larvae have a long and slender body with a tough exoskeleton. They can be recognized by their specialized mouthparts, carried on a small head. The maxillae and labium are adapted to manipulating the algae the larvae feed on, while the mandibles contain a channel through which fluids are sucked out of the food. The larval legs are short and carry a single claw each, but the forelegs have various adaptations for climbing among water plants. Respiration is via gills which are either long and filamentous, or (in Peltodytes) short microtracheal extensions; they are carried on the tergites of all sternal and all but the tenth (last) abdominal segments. The latter may be absent, but in the larvae of some Haliplidae it is tapering and ends in two prongs (which are not urogomphi though). The last (third) instar has functional spiracles on the mesothorax and the first to seventh abdominal segments.[2]
Ecology

Haliplids live in the aquatic vegetation around the edges of small ponds, lakes, and quiet streams. Adults are omnivorous, eating insect eggs, small crustaceans, hydrozoan polyps, and algae, while the larvae eat only algae. The species of Peltodytes deposit eggs on the surface of aquatic plants, while Haliplus chews out a cavity in the plants for their eggs. There are three instars, and pupation takes place on land in a chamber constructed by the larva.[1]

Crawling water beetles are not extensively studied because their interaction with humans is minimal. Hungerford's crawling water beetle (Brychius hungerfordi) is an endangered species found only in Michigan and Ontario.
Systematics

The classification of haliplids as a separate group of Adephaga is unquestioned, and most entomologists believe they developed from terrestrial beetles separately from other types of water beetles. For many decades, the family was in need of revision, the last general catalog being published by A. Zimmermann in 1920. B. J. van Vondel produced an updated catalogue of the known Haliplidae taxa.[3]

Like predaceous diving beetles (Dytiscidae), the crawling water beetles form an early offshoot of the Adephaga. They still have grooved maxillae and their tentoriolacinial muscle does not attach to the mesal stipial base. Their larvae, like those of predaceous diving beetles, do not possess eggshell-bursters on the head. It is not yet resolved whether Haliplidae and Dytiscidae are closest relatives, or whether they originated independently from the basal Adephaga.[2]
Genera

The family is not very diverse, with only five genera accepted.[4] Of these, Peltodytes is probably the most ancestral, though it has a number of autapomorphies. The others have more synapomorphies in common; Haliplus is the more diverse and appears to include some minor lineages formerly considered independent genera.[2]
References

R. E. Roughley (2001). "Haliplidae". In Ross H. Arnett, Jr. & Michael C. Thomas (ed.). American Beetles, Volume 1. CRC Press.
Rolf Georg Beutel (February 25, 2008). "Haliplidae. Crawling water beetles". Tree of Life Web Project. Retrieved January 10, 2011.
B. J. van Vondel (2005). "Haliplidae". In A. N. Nilsson (ed.). Volume 7. Amphizoidae, Aspidytidae, Haliplidae, Noteridae and Paelobiidae (Coleoptera, Adephaga). World Catalogue of Insects. Stenstrup: Apollo Books.
Haliplidae Species List at Joel Hallan's Biology Catalog. Texas A&M University. Retrieved on 10 May 2012.