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Nepidae

 
Nepidae

 
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Nepidae
 
 
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Nepidae is a family of insect
Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
s in the order Hemiptera
Hemiptera

Hemiptera is an order of insects, comprising around 80,000 species of cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, shield bugs, and others. They range in size from 1 mm to around 15 cm, and share a common arrangement of sucking mouthparts ....
, suborder Heteroptera
Heteroptera

Heteroptera is a group of about 40,000 species of insects in the Hemiptera. Sometimes called "true bugs", that name more commonly refers to Hemiptera as a whole, and "typical bugs" might be used as a more unequivocal alternative since among the Hemiptera the heteropterans are most consistently and universally termed "bugs"....
. They are commonly called water scorpions for their superficial resemblance to a scorpion
Scorpion

Scorpions are any arachnid of the order Scorpionida. They are members of the order Scorpiones within the class Arachnida. There are about 2,000 species of scorpions, found widely distributed south of about Latitude, except New Zealand and Antarctica....
, due to the modification of the legs, of the anterior pair for predation, and to the presence of a long slender process, simulating a tail, at the posterior end of the abdomen.






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Nepidae is a family of insect
Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
s in the order Hemiptera
Hemiptera

Hemiptera is an order of insects, comprising around 80,000 species of cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, shield bugs, and others. They range in size from 1 mm to around 15 cm, and share a common arrangement of sucking mouthparts ....
, suborder Heteroptera
Heteroptera

Heteroptera is a group of about 40,000 species of insects in the Hemiptera. Sometimes called "true bugs", that name more commonly refers to Hemiptera as a whole, and "typical bugs" might be used as a more unequivocal alternative since among the Hemiptera the heteropterans are most consistently and universally termed "bugs"....
. They are commonly called water scorpions for their superficial resemblance to a scorpion
Scorpion

Scorpions are any arachnid of the order Scorpionida. They are members of the order Scorpiones within the class Arachnida. There are about 2,000 species of scorpions, found widely distributed south of about Latitude, except New Zealand and Antarctica....
, due to the modification of the legs, of the anterior pair for predation, and to the presence of a long slender process, simulating a tail, at the posterior end of the abdomen. There are eight genera in the family, in two subfamilies, Nepinae and Ranatrinae. Members of the genus Ranatra are sometimes called needle bugs or water stick insects as they are more slender than Nepa
Nepa

Nepa is a Village Development Committee in Dailekh District in the Bheri Zone of western-central Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census it had a population of 3621 people residing in 739 individual households....
 and its relatives. The common British
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 species (Nepa cinerea
Nepa cinerea

Nepa cinerea is a species of water scorpion , found in Central Europe and the British Isles.It lives in ponds and stagnant water and feeds upon aquatic animals, especially insects....
) lives in ponds and stagnant water, and feeds upon aquatic animal organisms principally of the insect kind. Respiration in the adult is effected by means of the caudal process, which consists of a pair of half-tubes capable of being locked together to form a siphon by means of which air is conducted to the trachea
Invertebrate trachea

Many terrestrial animal arthropods have evolved a closed respiratory system composed of spiracles, tracheae, and tracheoles to transport metabolism gasses to and from tissue....
e at the apex of the abdomen when the tip of the tube is thrust above the surface of the water. In immature forms the siphon is undeveloped and breathing takes place through six pairs of abdominal spiracles. The eggs, laid in the stems of plants, are supplied with seven filamentous processes which float freely in the water.

In Nepa the body is broad and flat; but in an allied water-bug, Ranatra, which contains a single British species (R. linearis), it is long and narrow, while the legs are very slender and elongate.

See also

  • Eurypterid
    Eurypterid

    Eurypterids are an extinct group of arthropods related to arachnids, which include the largest known arthropods that ever lived. They are members of the extinct class Eurypterida and predate the earliest fishes....
     - Unrelated arachnids that are commonly called Sea Scorpions


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