Water boatman
Overview
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 in the order Hemiptera
Hemiptera
Hemiptera is an order of insects most often known as the true bugs , comprising around 50,000–80,000 species of cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, shield bugs, and others...
that inhabit ponds and slow moving streams, where they swim near the bottom. There are about 500 known species worldwide, in 33 genera, including the genus Sigara
Sigara
Sigara is a genus of water boatmen in the family Corixidae. Some species within this genus are halophiles; for example, occurrences of the genus have been noted in the hypersaline Makgadikgadi Pans in Botswana...
.
Members of the Corixidae are known in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
as water boatmen
Water boatman
Corixidae is a family of aquatic insects in the order Hemiptera that inhabit ponds and slow moving streams, where they swim near the bottom. There are about 500 known species worldwide, in 33 genera, including the genus Sigara....
, a term that is used in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
for Notonecta glauca
Notonecta glauca
Notonecta glauca is a species of backswimmer. It the most widespread and abundant of the four British notonectids....
, a bug of a different family, Notonectidae
Notonectidae
Notonectidae is a cosmopolitan family of aquatic insects in the order Hemiptera, commonly called backswimmers because they swim upside down. They are all predators, up to nearly 2 cm in size. They are similar in appearance to Corixidae , but can be separated by differences in their...
, and Corixa punctata is the "lesser water boatman".
Corixidae generally have a long flattened body up to 13 millimetre (0.511811023622047 in) long and have extremely fine dark brown or black striations marking the wings.
