Family SALDIDAE Amyot & Serville, 1843 ‑ shore bugs
P. Lindskog
The family includes 24 genera and about 270 species, distributed worldwide with the greatest diversity in local faunas of the temperate, boreal and Arctic‑Alpine zones of the Holarctic Region. They are a primarily hygrophilous and littoral group of ground dwelling and predatory insects, feeding upon larvae of Diptera and other small invertebrate preys, either located in the subsurface layers of the soil or on the soil surface, notably newly dead or disabled insects and other organisms stranded at the wet margins of water bodies or melting snow. The shore bugs are saltatorial and typically quite agile insects combining jumps with short, swift flights. They are represented in a wide range of water edge and wetland habitats (lake shores, stream banks, marine beaches, intertidal rocks and reefs, salt marshes, margins of temporary pools, Sphagnum bogs, reedswamps, etcetera). Some species live in drier habitats remote from water (as tundra and high alpine grounds). Maximum altitudinal records refer to several species of the genera Calacanthia and Chiloxanthus in Central Asia (4,000 ‑ 5,000 m above sea level). The generic and suprageneric classification of the family follows Cobben (1959) and J.T. Polhemus (1985a) (also Schuh & J.T. Polhemus, 1980), while clearly in need of revision.
World catalogue: Schuh & al., 1987. Palaearctic catalogue: Lindskog, 1995b. Monographs: Palaearctic ‑ Reuter, 1895a (classical work); Europe: Cobben, 1960; W Europe and NW Africa ‑ Péricart, 1990. Faunal reviews: Austria ‑ Heiss, 1972; Belgium ‑ Bosmans & Dethier, 1980; Czech Republic and Slovakia ‑ Hoberlandt, 1977c; Hungary ‑ Benedek, 1970; Italy ‑ Faraci & Rizzotti Vlach, 1992; Mongolia ‑ Vinokurov, 1979b; Netherlands - Aukema et al., 2002; Poland ‑ Wróblewski, 1966; Switzerland ‑ Dethier & Péricart, 1990. Biology: J.T. Polhemus, 1985a.