Alice Springs Fauna •
Alice Springs FaunaAlice Springs Native Bees Alice Springs Beetles Alice Springs Birds Alice Springs Gastropods (Gastropoda) Alice Springs Insects Alice Springs Marsupials Alice Springs Reptiles Alice Springs Spiders
Water Scorpion (Laccotrephes tristis) can be found in Alice Springs. Whilst they are considered poor swimmers, they can fly, enabling them to disperse to find new habitats and mates. They are often attracted to the night lights around swimming pool, ending up in the swimming pool (as pictured here in a saltwater pool).
Commonly known as Water Scorpion (Laccotrephes tristis) are not true scorpions, but large, predatory water bugs. Their long tail-like appendage is not a stinger, being a tube that is used for breathing at the surface of the water.
Laccotrephes tristis are ambush predators that feed on tadpoles, small fish, and other insects.
The Water Scorpion have also been sighted at nearby water holes on the outskirt of Alice Springs, including Simpsons Gap.
- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Subphylum: Hexapoda
- Class: Insecta
- Informal: Pterygotes
- Order: Hemiptera
- Suborder: Heteroptera
- Infraorder: Nepomorpha
- Superfamily: Nepoidea
- Family: Nepidae
- Subfamily: Nepinae
- Tribe: Nepini
- Genus: Laccotrephes
- Subgenus: infrageneric Laccotrephes
- Species: Laccotrephes tristis
Footnote & References
- Laccotrephes (Laccotrephes) tristis (Stål, 1854), Toe-Biter Water Scorpion, Atlas of Living Australia, https://bie.ala.org.au/species/Laccotrephes (Laccotrephes) tristis
