The giant water bug (Abedus herberti) is a large flightless insect that is a keystone predator in aridland aquatic habitats. Extended droughts, possibly due to climate change and groundwater pumping, are causing once-perennial aquatic habitats to dry, resulting in serious conservation concern for some populations. A. herberti also exhibits exclusive male parental care, which has made it a model organism for studying mating systems evolution. Here we describe 17 novel polymorphic microsatellite loci developed for A. herberti. Number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 to 15, and average observed and expected heterozygosities were 0.579 and 0.697, respectively. These loci can successfully resolve both population genetic structure among sites separated by 3-100 km (FST = 0.08-0.21, P < 0.0001), and divergent mating strategies within local populations, making them highly useful for conservation genetics studies of this vulnerable species.

中文翻译：

---

17 个新的多态性微卫星标记，用于巨型水虫 Abedus herberti（Belostomatidae）。

巨型水虫（Abedus herberti）是一种大型的不会飞的昆虫，是干旱地区水生栖息地的主要捕食者。长期干旱，可能是由于气候变化和地下水抽取，导致曾经多年生的水生栖息地干涸，导致一些种群面临严重的保护问题。A. herberti 还表现出独特的男性父母照顾，这使其成为研究交配系统进化的模式生物。在这里，我们描述了为 A. herberti 开发的 17 个新的多态性微卫星位点。每个基因座的等位基因数从 2 到 15 不等，平均观察到的和预期的杂合度分别为 0.579 和 0.697。这些位点可以成功解析相距 3-100 km 的位点之间的种群遗传结构（FST = 0.08-0.21，P < 0.0001），