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Limnogonus fossarum

Water-strider

Multimedia & Additional Resources

Type	Description	Download
Image:	Juvenile on water	54KB
Image:	Specimens - adult and juvenile	39KB
Image:	Mating?	49KB

General Information

COMMON NAMES: Water-strider

GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION: NATIVE se.Asia - Micronesia - PNG- New Caledonia - Fiji - Samoa - Cooks

COOK ISLANDS STATUS: Introduced - Recent, Naturalised; S.Group; ?; Land

KEY FEATURES: Insect to 10mm with long legs skating on standing water. BODY brown with various yellow lines, paired stripes over head broken between eyes. Hindlegs two pairs clustered at base, slender, long, to 2cm; foreleg pair well-forward, shorter and thicker. ADULT has wings.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Although there is an expert identified specimen in the Limnogonus lactuosus (New Caledonia to Samoa and Societies) has stripes over head continuous (vs usually broken between the eyes). Limnogonus buxtoni of Fiji - Samoa, and Limnogonus cheesemanae also extremely similar. Separated by experts only.

Cook Islands Distribution

View Distribution Map

Southern Group: Present Makatea: Present
RR	MG	AT	MK	MT	AK	PL	TK	MN
+++	++++		P

Northern Group:
TN	MH	RK	PK	NS	SW

Key to Symbols

blank	no data
-	absent	L	localised
X	extinct 'naturally'	W	widespread
XQi	quarantine intercepted	R	recent
XQe	eradicated	?	query preceding category
P	present	T?	taxonomic query
S	seasonal	nn	present, said to have no name
O	occasional	?1	present, name not investigated
++++	very common	?2	presence not verified, no name recorded
+++	common	N/A	absent, name not expected
++	uncommon
+	rare
Cook Islands islands: RR =Rarotonga, MG = Mangaia, AT =‘Ātiu, MK=Ma‘uke, MT=Miti‘āro, AK=Aitutaki, PL=Palmerston, PN=Penrhyn, MN=Manuae, TK=Takūtea, TN=Tongareva (TS=Tongaleva Spoken, TW=Tongareva Written, they say "el" but write "r"), MH=Manihiki, RK=Rakahanga, PK=Pukapuka, NS=Nassau, SW=Suwarrow. After a Polynesian name: ^=orthography query. Countries and other: FIJ=Fiji, WT=Wallis & Futuna, SAM=Samoa, TON=Tonga, NIU=Niue, CK=Cook Islands, CKM=Cook Islands Māori, FP=French Polynesia, AUS=Australs, SOC=Societies, TAH=Tahiti, TUA=Tuamotus, MQS=Marquesas, MNG=Mangareva, PIT=Pitcain group, EAS=Easter Island, HAW=Hawai‘i, NZ=New Zealand, NZM=New Zealand Māori

Scientific Taxonomy

Limnogonus fossarum
SYNONYMS: Limnogonus fossarum skusei [PNG - Cooks]

TAXONOMY: ANIMALIA; ARTHROPODA; ATELOCERATA; HEXAPODA; INSECTA; PTERYGOTA; Hemiptera; Heteroptera; GERRIDAE

Vouchers & References

Vouchers:
Rarotonga: specimen Muri Beach, 12/1937, in BPBM ID N. Moller Anderson as Limnogonus fossarum skusei. Mangaia: fieldspecimen+photo, Vaitate taro plots, 2006/5, G.McCormack with ID as probably Limnogonus fossarum.

References:
None recorded.

Data Update History (information):
zTX, zB02, zM05a, zupM6a, zD02

Web Resources

Citation Information

McCormack, Gerald (2007) Cook Islands Biodiversity Database, Version 2007.2. Cook Islands Natural Heritage Trust, Rarotonga. Online at http://cookislands.bishopmuseum.org.
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