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Family: Corixidae
©Ducks Unlimited Canada
It could be said that a rowboat with oars is best at getting across a slow-moving pond. But an aquatic insect with a similar name, and that moves in a similar way, may beg to differ: the Water Boatman.
Habitat
Look for Water Boatmen in the water of ponds, marshes, lake edges, and slow-moving rivers.
Food
Some Water Boatmen feed on algae and aquatic plants, while most others feed on insects and other small creatures underwater.
Behaviour
Water Boatmen have wings and can fly, but they are most at home in the water. Their long rear legs are covered with small hairs. This makes them powerful swimmers, but poor walkers. Even though they spend most of their time underwater, they can’t breathe there. Instead, they trap air around their bodies to use, like a scuba tank. When it runs out, they must return to the surface to trap more. They pierce both plants and animals with their straw-like mouthparts. Injected enzymes dissolve the insides of the plant or animal and then it is sucked back out as food. Eggs are laid on underwater plants.
Conservation
Water Boatmen are common and are of low conservation priority. But like other creatures, habitat loss is their greatest threat through things like wetland drainage.
