Belostoma Latreille, 1807

Novoselsky, Tanya, Chen, Ping-Ping & Nieser, Nico, 2018, A review of the giant water bugs (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Nepomorpha: Belostomatidae) of Israel, Israel Journal of Entomology (Oxford, England) 48 (1), pp. 119-141 : 126-128

Genus Belostoma Latreille, 1807

The genus Belostoma can be distinguished from other members of the Belostomatinae by having the large membrane of the hemelytra, the phallobase bifurcated dorsally, and the dorsal arms of the phallotheca extending nearly to the apex of the ventral diverticulum. The membrane of the hemelytron is well developed, with its greatest width more than that of the clavus, most of its cells equal in length, in the form of long, narrow rectangles ( De Carlo 1966; Nieser 1975; Estévez & Ribeiro 2011).

According to Nieser (1975) and Lanzer de Souza (1980), Belostoma accommodates about 70 described species. The genus is considered endemic to the New World, and is most speciose in tropical South America. No species have previously been reported outside the Americas, so this is the first record of the genus Belostoma in the Old World.