Primicimex

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Primicimex
Preserved adult female of P. cavernis
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Suborder: Heteroptera
Family: Cimicidae
Genus: Primicimex
Barber, 1941
Species:
P. cavernis
Binomial name
Primicimex cavernis
Barber, 1941
Synonyms
  • Primicimex caverna Barber, 1941

Primicimex is a monotypic

ectoparasitic bed bugs in the family Cimicidae, the only species being Primicimex cavernis,[1][2][3] which is both the largest cimicid, and the most primitive one. It feeds on bats and was described from Ney Cave in Medina County, Texas but has since been found in four other caves in Guatemala, Mexico, and southern United States.[4]

Description

Like all cimicids, Primicimex cavernis is flat and oval-shaped, becoming plumper after feeding. It is unable to fly and has beak-like mouthparts with which it pierces the skin and sucks the blood of its host.

pelage.[6]

Ecology

Primicimex cavernis and its nearest relative,

savannah grassland with oak (Quercus), mesquite (Prosopis) and grasses. The cave is a seasonal roost used by the bats as nursery quarters, and at dusk during the summer, upward of 400,000 bats may stream out of the cave entrance to forage for insects, returning to the roost before dawn. The young are mostly born in June and remain in the roost until able to fly, at about 40 days of age.[7] Cimicids have the ability to survive for long periods without feeding, and this allows Primicimex cavernis to hide in crevices, awaiting the return of their hosts from their over-wintering sites.[6]

Like other cimicids, Primicimex cavernis feeds exclusively on blood. It also performs traumatic insemination with the sperm being injected through the body wall but it is exceptional within the family in that at the injection site females do not possess a special female organ called the spermalege.[8]

References

  1. ^ "Primicimex Report". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  2. ^ "Primicimex".
    GBIF
    . Retrieved 2019-09-24.
  3. ^ Usinger, Robert Leslie (1966). Monograph of Cimicidae (Hemiptera, Heteroptera) (PDF). Entomological Society of America. pp. 294–295. (39 MB)
  4. ^ Jones, Susan C. & Jordan, Kyle K. "Bat Bugs" (PDF). Ohio State University Extension Fact Sheet. Ohio State University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 March 2017. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  5. ^
    PMID 30847069
    .
  6. doi:10.1644/08-MAMM-A-266R1.1
    .
  7. PMID 16968204. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 26 May 2010.

Further reading

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