Family HEBRIDAE Amyot & Serville, 1843 ‑ Velvet water bugs, sphagnum bugs
N.M. Andersen
The family includes 7 genera and about 150 species, distributed worldwide. All species are predators of arthropods. The small bugs live in moist surroundings, either humid terrestrial habitats (litter, moss), marginal aquatic habitats (sphagnum bogs), or rarely on water surfaces covered with floating plants. Hebrids overwinter as adults. The relatively large eggs are deposited superficially on plant leaves. There are five larval instars. Many species are wing-dimorphic.
World catalogue: Lethierry & Severin, 1896 (outdated). Palaearctic catalogue: Andersen, 1995d. Monographs: Andersen, 1981a (checklist included); Andersen, 1982a (general account); Horváth, 1929c (outdated). Faunal reviews: China ‑ Hoffmann, 1941; Chen & Andersen, 1993; France ‑ Poisson, 1957a; Italy ‑ Servadei, 1967; Tamanini, 1979; North Africa ‑ Poisson, 1944; Taiwan ‑ Miyamoto, 1965c; W Palaearctic ‑ Stichel, 1955‑1956. Biology: Cobben, 1968a; Heming‑van Battum & Heming, 1986, 1989; J.T. Polhemus & Chapman, 1979; Southwood & Leston, 1959.