Anisops ( Brooks 1951 )

Young, Euan C., 2010, The taxonomic impediment of unrecognised flight polymorphism in Notonectidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera), Zootaxa 2535, pp. 35-48 : 37

Anisops ( Brooks 1951)

The descriptions of Brooks (1951) are predominantly of the flightless morph (Appendix 2) with 53 of this morph alone, 11 of the flying morph and 16 of both morphs to a greater or lesser degree. In the remainder (16) it is not clear which morph was described or whether a second morph was included in the descriptions.

This revision of the genus Anisops includes 96 species, 30 of which were newly described. The descriptions closely follow the pattern established by Hungerford and document for each species key elements of dimensions, colour, and head to pronotal width. Brooks notes, that as for Notonecta , ‘most of the older descriptions were based on color and it is almost impossible to determine species on this basis’. Brooks instead relies to a large degree on the chaetotaxy of the male front leg.

Brooks often used latinized terms for colour and although some can be readily interpreted as defining each morph others, such as the commonly used colour testaceous, are less definitive. A pale testaceous, fulvous, or stramineous scutellum clearly describes a flightless morph, but rufo-testaceous or merely testaceous are ambiguous. However, any specimen described as having a black, fuscous, or fuliginous scutellum is recognisable as a flight-capable morph. Many descriptions refer also to pale, brown, or dark forms. Brooks certainly recognised that there was some sort of dimorphism or polymorphism in his species, without recognizing that his colour forms were indicative of flight-muscle or wing polymorphism