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Piesmatidae is a small family of true bugs, commonly called ash-grey leaf bugs. It contains a mere three living genera with over 40 described species altogether. The Piesmatidae are distributed mostly in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with some occurring in Africa, Australia and South America. A common species found throughout the Americas is ''Piesma cinereum''.〔Grimaldi & Engel (2007)〕 Ash-grey leaf bugs are small insects, some 2–4 mm overall. The head, thorax and the firm part of the wings are extensively dimpled. This resembles the similar pattern of the Tingidae of the infraorder Cimicomorpha, and was initially taken to signify a close relationship. It is due to convergent evolution however.〔 They feed on plant sap, mostly of Chenopodiaceae and Caryophyllaceae. ''Piesma linnavouri' have been found on ''Acacia'' (Fabaceae. ''Mcateella' have been found on many host plants but mostly ''Acacia'' and ''Proteaceae''. The host plants of ''Miespa'' remain unknown.〔 ==Systematics== There are only 3 unequivocally accepted extant genera of Piesmatidae: * ''Mcateella'' * ''Miespa'' * ''Piesma'' Most of the approximately 40 named species are in the type genus ''Piesma'', from which the subgenera ''Afropiesma'' and ''Parapiesma'' are sometimes split off. The genus ''Thaicoris'' was for some time placed here, but it has more recently been suggested that it is a member of the Thaumastocoridae.〔 There are two fossil genera. ''Eopiesma'' from the earliest Eocene (about 55 mya) is still a very basal member of the family. ''Heissiana'', found in Baltic amber from the Eocene might be a northern relative of ''Mcateella'' and ''Miespa'' but given its distribution it might more comfortably be considered closely related to the ancestor of ''Eopiesma''.〔 From 2007-2009 ''Cretopiesma'' was placed within the family. ''Cretopiesma'' was found in mid-Cretaceous amber from Myanmar and lived about 100 mya (million years ago) and was initially considered to be a promitive piesmatid but this has since been rejected. The closest relatives of the Piesmatidae remain rather insufficiently determined. After the ash-grey leaf bugs were recognized as Pentatomomorpha, they were most often placed in the Lygaeoidea based on cladistic analysis, with their relatives variously presumed to be the Berytidae, Colobathristidae and Malcidae, or the peculiar, beetle-like Psamminae, a subfamily of the Lygaeidae. For some time, the Psamminae were even included in the Piesmatidae.〔 Alternatively, the ash-grey leaf bugs were considered Pentatomomorpha ''incertae sedis'' or placed in a monotypic superfamily Piesmatoidea with the discovery of ''Cretopiesma''. However a cladistic analysis by Cassis ans Schuh rejected ''Cretopiesma'' from Piesmatidae and placed the genus in the family Aradoidea. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Piesmatidae」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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