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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Beetles (Coleoptera) » Adephaga » Whirligig Beetles (Gyrinidae) » Gyrininae » Dineutus

Genus Dineutus

Classification · Other Common Names · Synonyms and other taxonomic changes · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Size · Identification · Range · Habitat · Remarks · Works Cited

Whirligig Beetle - Dineutus nigrior - male

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Coleoptera (Beetles)

Suborder Adephaga

Family Gyrinidae (Whirligig Beetles)

Subfamily Gyrininae

Genus Dineutus

Other Common Names

Mellow Bugs, Apple Bugs (refers to the defensive odor)(1)

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

revised in(2)

Explanation of Names

Dineutus MacLeay 1825

Numbers

14 spp. in our area, 18 in the New World(2)

Size

at 9.0-15.5 mm, our largest gyrinids(3)

Identification

Adults readily distinguished by large size and concealed scutellum(1)

key to spp. in(2)

Range

worldwide, mostly tropical(4), widespread in NA(3), by far more diverse in the south(1)(2)

Habitat

Found on the surface of streams/rivers, ponds, lakes (can form rafts of immense numbers on lakes)(3)

Remarks

When disturbed, adults produce a defensive secretion that smells like apples(1)

our only representative of the tribe Enhydrini Régimbart 1882 that contains 5 genera and occurs throughout the world except much of the Palaearctic and large areas of the Neotropics(5)

Works Cited

1.	The Water Beetles of Florida Epler J.H. 2010. Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Tallahassee. 414 pp.

2.	The New World whirligig beetles of the genus Dineutus Macleay, 1825 (Coleoptera, Gyrinidae, Gyrininae, Dineutini) Gustafson GT, Miller KB. 2015. Zookeys; 476: 1-135.

3.	American Beetles, Volume I: Archostemata, Myxophaga, Adephaga, Polyphaga: Staphyliniformia Arnett, R.H., Jr., and M. C. Thomas. (eds.). 2000. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL.

4.	Keys to the insects of the Far East of the USSR, Vol. 3. Coleoptera I Lehr P.A., ed. 1989. Leningrad, Nauka Publishing House, 572 pp.

5.	Phylogeny and classification of whirligig beetles (Coleoptera: Gyrinidae): relaxed-clock model outperforms parsimony... Miller K.B., Bergsten J. 2012. Systematic Entomology 37: 706–746.

Contributed by tom murray on 31 August, 2005 - 12:57pm
Additional contributions by Bbarnd, Mike Quinn, v belov
Last updated 25 January, 2015 - 9:01pm

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