Alice Springs Fauna •
Alice Springs True Bugs (Heteroptera)Eucalyptus Tip-wilting Bug Ground Shield Bug (Choerocoris paganus) Ippatha australiensis Soapberry Bugs, Leptocoris sp Spilostethus sp Water Scorpion
Whilst the Water Scorpion (Laccotrephes tristis) is found throughout Australia, it can be a surprise to find them swimming in your swimming pool in Alice Springs.
Pictured is a leaf-shaped water scorpion, Laccotrephes tristis being the only such species found in Australia so far.
Water scorpions are air breathing aquatic insects and whilst it is unusual to find them in swimming pools (we found two different water scorpions over the years in the same pool), they are usually found in shallow stagnant and slow-moving water, such as can be found in the gorges and waterholes of Central Australia.
The water scorpion breathes through a long thin structure attached to its rear end, a bit like a snorkel. The Water Scorpion breathes by trapping an air bubble in tiny water-repellent hairs between its forewings and abdomen. The hairs connect to the snorkel and when the air bubble is almost depleted, the Water Scorpion returns to the surface, sticking its snorkel out, through which air seeps into the snorkel in a process called diffusion, thereby replenishing the air bubble.
The water scorpions were safely moved to a nearby fish pond. Of interest was that they were dark in colour when removed from the pool and appear to change colour, becoming lighter tan and brown in colour.
- 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/https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/0b9f8deb-6503-48e0-b952-383fcb924ce6
Alice Springs True Bugs (Heteroptera)Eucalyptus Tip-wilting Bug Ground Shield Bug (Choerocoris paganus) Ippatha australiensis Soapberry Bugs, Leptocoris sp Spilostethus sp Water Scorpion
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