Common backswimmer
Notonecta glauca
— Where the name comes from
Notonecta is “that swims on its back”, from nôton, the back, and néō, to swim: this insect lives upside down, belly to the sky and keeled back towards the bottom, rowing with two long hind legs fringed with hairs. Glauca is the blue-grey of the underside. The name describes a way of being in the world, not a shape — which is why it works so well.
— Facts
- Group
- Insects · Insecta
- Order
- True bugs
- Habitat
- Ponds, tanks, troughs, still water
- Range
- Europe, Asia, North Africa
- Size
- 13–16 mm
- Diet
- Tadpoles, fry, insects fallen into the water
- Lifespan
- 1 year
— Characteristics
- 01
It swims belly up and sees the world from below.
- 02
Its bite is painful: it pierces and injects digestive enzymes.
- 03
It stores air in two channels of hair along the abdomen.
— What sets it apart
Living upside down, it has a pale back and a dark belly, the reverse of nearly every other aquatic animal: countershading, which serves to blend with the bottom for anything looking down and with the light for anything looking up, has simply been flipped along with the animal. It hunts looking upwards, against the sky, where every prey becomes a black silhouette. It also stabs with its rostrum and injects digestive saliva: anyone who picks one up finds the pain much like a bee’s, and in many regions it is known as the “water bee”.
