Water Scorpion

Description:

Dark (maybe black) coloured, small flattened bug with a rather scorpion-like look. It has a long caudal process which is the respiratory apparatus. Don't miss the "pincers".

Habitat:

The office has dry drains to channel monsoon rain water. Today when I took a walk I was amazed to see an ecosystem flourishing there. There was a water scorpion. The first one I have seen. Also, tiny spiral shells (!), and loads of tiny fish (I thought these were tadpoles till I looked closely). and filamentous algae.

Notes:

This was totally submerged but moving when photographed. Last photo has been very closely cropped and auto-corrected to bring out the bug's outline.