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Project Noah Nature School
Spotting #600 ! This water scorpion is 55-65 mm from forehead to tail tip (42-53mm in body length, 8-13mm siphon) Dark brown in color. It is equipped with a mantis-like forelegs to grab preys underwater, and also 2 half tubes at the tip of its abdomen which can be locked together to form a siphon which is always kept outside the water surface to help it breath air in while it stays underwater.
"chinstrap"
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In the river in Madai Waterfalls Forest Reserve Park (Pusat Sejadi Hutan Simpan Madai Baturong Kunak), Sabah.
>>>Map accuracy : 1km diameter. When I was in the river, I saw something like a stick insect swimming in the water. As I moved towards it, it also swam towards me and rested on my leg where it comfortably resume to it's hunting position with its "tail siphon" pointing out of the water while the head looking down for aquatic animals. I then slowly picked it up towards the water surface where I can get a clearer shot. DON'T DO THIS AT HOME (OR EVEN IN THE OUTDOORS), WATER SCORPIONS ARE KNOWN TO GIVE A NASTY BITE / STING! It then felt uncomfortable when I brought it out of the water so it jumped out from my hand and swam away. This is a great experience with my first Water Scorpion spotting. Special thanks to Ignacio Gamboa for his efforts and interest in trying to identify this one as a Cercotmetus species. The most suitable species ID I can get is Cercotmetus asiaticus, a common widespread species recorded in this report https://lkcnhm.nus.edu.sg/nus/pdf/PUBLIC...
Spotted on Jun 9, 2010
Submitted on Feb 3, 2014
24 Comments
RiekoS, Leana, Dan, Bhagya Herath, ChiefRedEarth,
Thank you all for your wonderful comments !
Congratulations CHUN! Interesting species and wonderful photographs. An my apologies for being late. :))
wow!!! nice spotting with great details .... Congrats Chun ...
Congrats on 600 and this cool SOTD Chun.
Congratulations Chun on this SOTD!
Congratulations for both Spotting of the day and your spotting #600!
Thank you very much my friends for your favorites and praises.
@KarenL, thanks for featuring this.
@Sergio, I can assure you that I will never touch another water scorpion again but I will probably try holding a real scorpion this time :-)
Congratulations, Chun. You should get also a medal for extreme dedication to science and remarkable curiosity (but don't do it again, right?)
Congrats ChunXing for the SOTD!
Congratulations on your SOTD and 600 spottings! Great job.
Congratulations!
Congrats Chun!!
Congratulations
Congratulations Chun.
No problem ChunXingWong, I'm very interested in aquatic hemiptera, so, it's more like an oportunity to learn more. I found this interesting paper about water bugs in Peninsular Malaysia and surroundigs and I think it could be very helpful: http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/rbz/biblio/61/61r...
Acording to this, I would say my first guess was wrong and this could possibly be Cercotmetus genus (Cercotmetus asiaticus?).
By the way, congratulations on your totally deserved Spotting of the Day.
Chun, congratulations on a great SOTD!
Congrtas Chun great SOTD and 600th!
Congratulations Chun, your remarkable bug has been chosen Spotting of the day!
The water scorpion is not a true scorpion, but a large aquatic bug. It’s extremely powerful forelegs are used to seize prey, and its remarkable 'tail' acts as a siphon to take in air from the surface, enabling it to stay below the water for up to 30 minutes at a time.
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Beautiful choice for 600! Congrats! Glad your experience was a non-painful one ;-).
Thank you very much Ignacio Gamboa for trying to identify this. Ranatra seems like a good genus. Unfortunately no intensive research on Water Scorpions has been done in this area so it is hard to determine this species, this could even be a new species !
Thanks, Mark and Lauren.
Sometimes I am willing to sacrifice my skin if the species is not too dangerous
:-)
Ranatrinae (most probably Ranatra sp). I'm not familiar with species on Malaysia, I''l look for it and let you know if find something.
Very nice! I am amazed it didn't bite you!
Excellent spotting Chun. Brave man :-)