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Tardigrades (/ ˈ t ɑːr d ɪ ɡ r eɪ d z / ⓘ), [1] known colloquially as water bears or moss piglets, [2] are a phylum of eight-legged segmented micro-animals. They were first described by the German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773, who called them Kleiner Wasserbär ' little water bear ' .
Belostomatidae is a family of freshwater hemipteran insects known as giant water bugs or colloquially as toe-biters, Indian toe-biters, electric-light bugs (because they fly to lights in large numbers), alligator ticks, or alligator fleas (in Florida). They are the largest insects in the order Hemiptera. [1]
The largest is the dobsonfly Acanthacorydalis fruhstorferi, which can have a wingspan of up to 21.6 cm (8.5 in), making it the largest aquatic insect in the world by this measurement. [38] This species is native to China and Vietnam, and its body can be up to 10.5 cm (4.1 in) long. [39]
Bugs of the genus Belostoma prefer lentic habitats with submerged or emergent vegetation and for overwintering the adults fly to ponds and slow-moving waters. During the springtime and the early summer they often fly to electric light-sources, thus they are also called "electric-light-bugs". [6] The life circle contains one generation a year.
Lethocerus patruelis is a giant water bug in the family Belostomatidae. It is native to southeastern Europe, through Southwest Asia, to Pakistan, India and Burma. [1] It is the largest European true bug and aquatic insect. [2] Adult females are typically 7–8 cm (2.8–3.1 in) long, while the adult males are 6–7 cm (2.4–2.8 in). [1]
They were once thought to be extinct but were rediscovered in 2001.
Wētā is a loanword, from the Māori-language word wētā, which refers to this whole group of large insects; some types of wētā have a specific Māori name. [2] In New Zealand English, it is spelled either "weta" or "wētā", although the form with macrons is increasingly common in formal writing, as the Māori word weta (without macrons) instead means "filth or excrement". [3]
Lethocerus sp. with wings open. Unlike giant water bugs in the subfamily Belostomatinae, females do not lay the eggs on the backs of males. [4] Instead, after copulation (often multiple sessions [5]) the eggs are laid on emergent vegetation (rarely on man-made structures) high enough above the waterline that the eggs will not be permanently submerged.