What is this? Tell me what it is! Is it a waterbug? How afraid do I need to be?
If it is a waterbug, then it can be one of any 2,000 species found the world over (save for the poles, of course). Some waterbugs feed are predatory and feed on everything from invertebrates to small fish and amphibians. Others are omnivores, and still others feed on plants.
Many are equipped with rostrums, which are useful in being able to slurp out the innards of their chosen prey. Others, like water boatmen, are able to chew their food a bit and suck up the resulting pulp. Yummy, yummy. I'm suddenly very glad to have teeth, and that most of my slurping involves cold, sugary drinks.
Photo courtesy: Team Ali Baba_gannclan6.JPG)
Sep 26, 2009
Of Waterbugs, Slurping, and Rostrums
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8 comments:
Yeah, it's a giant water bug (family Belostomatidae). Can't tell you the species though. Or the genus.
You don't need to be too afraid, but they CAN uh... pierce? stab? you with their mouthparts and inject their saliva, which will HURT (or so I hear).
They also fly out at night and fly to other ponds. They're apparently attracted to lights.
I kept a baby one for a while, it was really cute. The carcasses of the flies I fed it looked really creepy, since their eyes turned white.
Apparently there are water scorpions that also look a lot like this...but in my experience anything that looks like this was a Giant Water Beetle, which wiki says has an amazingly painful bite/sting
Buggy said: "You don't need to be too afraid, but they CAN uh... pierce? stab? you with their mouthparts and inject their saliva, which will HURT (or so I hear).
They also fly out at night and fly to other ponds. They're apparently attracted to lights."
So I don't need to be afraid of a BODY PIERCING BITE possessing, poison injecting, flying, night time vision scary bug that could hunt me down where ever I tried to hide? Awesome.
Cynth- you forgot to mention the giant part. Some of the bigger ones can reach 12 cm, which is 4.7inches.
Just sayin'
Mwuahahaha!!
What they say is true, this thing bites and it hurts like freaking hell. Makes the spot that was bitten swell up like Rosie O'Donell too...
Angelo, you've reminded me that I shouldn't drink water while reading the comments. You almost had me spew all over my computer monitor.
We saw one of these WATERbugs in the desert where there had been no water for months and months.
As much as I hate to admit it, but I was anything but cool everytime it moved as I was taking photos, and that although I didn´t even know yet how nasty its bite is.
It looked like a fascinating and huuuge alien when seen through a macro-lense from 10cm distance. I can´t help myself, but actually find that it had a "cute expression"!
http://picasaweb.google.com/moshirahassan/GiantWaterbugAtWadiDegla
I think its a toe-biter, a large waterbug species with a painful bite and an evil disposition
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