PHYLOGENY AND CLASSIFICATION OF AQUATIC BUGS (HETEROPTERA, NEPOMORPHA) - AN ESSAY REVIEW OF MAHNER SYSTEMA-CRYPTOCERATUM-PHYLOGENETICUM

This essay is essentially a review of the monographic work by the Germ an zoologist Martin Mahner: 'Systema Cryptoceratum Phylogeneticum (Ins ecta, Heteroptera)' (Zoologica, Heft 143, Stuttgart 1993). The monogra ph is the most comprehensive systematic account of the aquatic bugs to date and the first major work on this group where the principles of p hylogenetic (cladistic) systematics are consistently applied. Mahner f ollows the principles of the 'konsequent-phylogenetische oder cladisti schen Systematik', being Willi Hennig's phylogenetic systematics as in terpreted and modified by Peter Ax. The methodological procedures reco mmended by this school of systematics is controversial, however, and c all for a broader discussion of current trends in systematics as exemp lified by the phylogeny and classification of the aquatic bugs.