Water Boatman

views updated May 29 2018

Water Boatman

Adult

Body Description

Water boatmen are shaped like a flat football and average in length from 1/3-1/2 maximum. Their oar shaped legs are distinguishing because of their oaring locomotion. Boatmen carry a bubble on their belly. Their body color is a drab brownish black with subtle barring of dirty yellow, brown olive, gray-brown. The belly is a light to dark brown or dirty white to dull yellow.

Snails

Adult

Body Description

Snails have a rather unique shell with a retractable body. Their body colors usually match the colorization of the water bottom, with olives, browns, or blackish shells.

Notonectidae

views updated May 14 2018

Notonectidae (backswimmers, water boatmen; order Hemiptera, suborder Heteroptera) Family of predatory, aquatic bugs, which swim in the water with their backs directed downwards, propelling themselves by means of the hair-fringed hind pair of legs; hence their common names. The front two pairs of legs are used to grasp prey. There are about 200 species, distributed world-wide.

water boatman

views updated May 14 2018

water boatman Aquatic insect found worldwide. Its body is grey to black, oval and flat, with fringed, oar-like hind legs. Length: about 15mm (0.6in). Order Hemiptera; family Corixidae. The carnivorous ‘backswimmers’ of the family Notonectidae are also sometimes called water boatmen.

water boatman

views updated May 21 2018

water boatman See NOTONECTIDAE.

backswimmer

views updated May 17 2018

backswimmer See NOTONECTIDAE.