Aradoidea, Spinola, 1837

Grazia, Jocelia, Schuh, Randall T. & Wheeler, Ward C., 2008, Phylogenetic relationships of family groups in Pentatomoidea based on morphology and DNA sequences (Insecta: Heteroptera), Cladistics 24, pp. 932-976 : 963

Aradoidea

Sweet (1996, 2006) argued that the Aradidae should be treated as a separate infraorder, Aradimorpha (originally Aradomorpha), because members of the

group ‘‘have a more plesiomorphous abdominal structure, than the Leptopodomorpha + Pentatomomorpha , and possess unique apomorphies’’ ( Sweet, 1996). This viewpoint has not been widely adopted in the literature on heteropteran classification, possibly because only a few workers have devoted effort to dealing with this particular subject during the intervening period (e.g. Cassis and Gross, 2002). Our evidence offers no support for Sweet̕s (1996) theory, but rather corroborates the theory that the Aradoidea belong to the Geocorisae. As is the case for the Cimicomorpha , our sample for the Aradidae is small and does not offer strong evidence for placement of the Aradoidea within the Geocorisae. It is nonetheless largely concordant with that of Wheeler et al. (1993) in placing the Aradoidea as the sister group of the Trichophora . Astronger test of this theory will require analysis of a much larger taxon sample for the Aradoidea in conjunction with a broader sample from the Geocorisae and Leptopodomorpha.