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iNat·81570FamilyInsecta41,908 field observations
  1. Animals
  2. ›Arthropods
  3. ›Hexapods
  4. ›Insects
  5. ›Winged and Once-winged Insects
  6. ›True Bugs, Hoppers, Aphids, and allies
  7. ›True Bugs
  8. ›Water Bugs
  9. ›Nepoidea
Giant Water Bugs
Plate 1 of 7. (c) Charles Tilford, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA) · via iNaturalist

Giant Water Bugs

Belostomatidae

Belostomatidae is a family of freshwater hemipteran insects known as giant water bugs or colloquially as toe-biters, Indian toe-biters, electric-light bugs, alligator ticks, or alligator fleas (in Florida). They are the largest insects in the order Hemiptera, and occur worldwide, with most of the species in North America, South America, Northern Australia, and East Asia. They are typically encountered in freshwater streams and ponds. Most species are at least 0.75 in (2 cm) long, although smaller species also...

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Where it lives

Recorded sightings

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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.

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Every page naming Belostomatidae in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →

This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 81570.