Naucoridae
Encyclopedia
Naucoridae is a small family of insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

s commonly known as the creeping water bugs. They are very similar in appearance and behavior to the giant water bug
Giant water bug
Belostomatidae is a family of insects in the order Hemiptera, known as giant water bugs or colloquially as toe-biters, electric-light bugs and Alligator Ticks . They are the largest insects in the order Hemiptera, and occur worldwide, with most of the species in North America, South America,...

s (Belostomatidae), and also occur in ponds and other still waters. Occasionally, these insects can be found in damp places in a person's home, and are often mistaken for cockroaches. There are approximately 20 genera in 5 subfamilies, distributed worldwide.

They were formerly united in a superfamily
Taxonomic rank
In biological classification, rank is the level in a taxonomic hierarchy. Examples of taxonomic ranks are species, genus, family, and class. Each rank subsumes under it a number of less general categories...

 Naucoroidea with the Aphelocheiridae and Potamocoridae, but these are now in their own superfamily (Aphelocheiroidea) and the Naucoroidea are monophyletic.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK