Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Upside down

Found this big guy in our neighbor's pool - transferred it to my pond.
There is something wrong with this picture, though...
It's upside down! That's right... this is how they're supposed to be...
Backswimmers are quite common in my pond.
Like the lace bugs in the last post, they are in the order Hemiptera. Take a look at that beak!
Backswimmers are in the family Notonectidae, swim upside down, and are proficient predators. This one had a body length of a bit over 1cm.

1 comment:

TheFrogBag said...

Great photos! Notonectidae are among my favorites. One of my best flea market finds last year was a vintage illustration of their body parts. I framed it and hung it in the kitchen.