Galapagos Species Database
The Galapagos Species Database shares the information about the species from our Natural History Collections.
Darwinivelia fosteri
chinche
Predator; intertidal zone?, also on surface of pools in deep lava crevices such as Grieta Iguana at CDRS; April; only micropterous specimens are known.
Domain
Eukaryota
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Arthropoda
Class
Insecta
Order
Hemiptera
Suborder
Heteroptera
Superfamily
Mesovelioidea
Family
Mesoveliidae
Genus
Darwinivelia
Species
fosteri
Taxon category: Accepted
This genus was once thought to be endemic to the Galápagos, but other species in this genus are now known from Colombia and Brazil (Polhemus & Manzano, 1992). The type specimen was a prey item of a Halobates sea-strider.
Origin: Endemic
Map of specimen collection localities or observation records for this species in our collections database.
- Froeschner, R.C. (1985) Synopsis of the Heteroptera or True Bugs of the Galápagos Islands. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology 407: 1-84.
- Gerecke, R. Peck, S.B. & Pehofer, H.E. (1995) The invertebrate fauna of the inland waters of the Galápagos Archipelago (Ecuador) - a limnological and zoogeographical summary. Arch. Hydrobiol./ Suppl. 107(2): 113-147.
- Peck, S.B. (2001) Smaller Orders of Insects of the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador: Evolution, Ecology, and Diversity. NRC Research Press, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 278 pp.
You are welcome to download and use the information found in this page, acknowledging its source.
This page should be cited as follows:
"Galapagos Species Database, Darwinivelia fosteri", dataZone. Charles Darwin Foundation, https://datazone.darwinfoundation.org/en/checklist/?species=11116. Accessed 5 June 2026.