Common water boatman
The common water boatman is a little green bug that rows through the water like a tiny boat. Its long back legs are covered in fine hairs and work just like oars. It can swim, and it can fly too, so it can move from pond to pond.
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Fun facts
It carries its own air supply: a bubble of air trapped under its wing cases by tiny hairs.
It uses that air bubble to help it hear sounds that travel through the water.
It swims on its front, unlike the backswimmer, which swims upside down.
It can fly, which helps it find new ponds.
Most asked questions about Common water boatman
?Does the water boatman bite?
No. It is a gentle plant eater and harmless to people.
?What does the water boatman eat?
Algae and pieces of dead plants in the water.
?How does a water boatman breathe underwater?
It traps a bubble of air under its wing cases and breathes from that.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Corixa punctata
- Named by
- Illiger
- Group
- True bugs and cicadas
- Family
- Corixidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hemiptera > Corixidae
- Lives on
- Europe
- Also known as
- Lesser water boatman, Lesser waterboatman
Where the facts come from
- Lesser water boatman (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 Piet Spaans. CC BY-SA 2.5, 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 hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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