Bug card No. 1427 of 1,500
Water scorpion
Nepa cinerea
The water scorpion is a flat, brown water bug that looks a bit like a dead leaf. It is a snorkel that it pokes up out of the water to breathe.
Lives in
Most of Europe, North Africa and Asia, in ponds, small rivers and still water
What does it eat?
It hunts water animals, mostly insects, in ponds and slow streams.
How fast is it?
A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
Water scorpion about 2 km/h (1.2 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Its breathing tube is made of two half tubes that click together into one long straw.
2
Young water scorpions do not have the snorkel yet. They breathe through little holes along their body.
3
The mother lays her eggs inside the stems of water plants.
4
Each egg has seven thin threads that float in the water.
you asked
Most asked questions about Water scorpion
?What does a water scorpion eat?
It hunts other water animals, mostly insects.
?How does a water scorpion breathe underwater?
It sticks the tip of its tail tube out of the water and breathes air through it, like a snorkel.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Nepa cinerea
- Group
- True bugs and cicadas
- Family
- Nepidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hemiptera > Nepidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Nepa cinerea (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Nepa_rubra2.jpg : Holger Gröschl derivative work: B kimmel ( talk ). CC BY-SA 2.0 de, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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