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This thing was about 7 cm long and it is aquatic. It was found on the shore of lake Malawi. I found it up side down and flipped it over to see better. I poured some water on the back to see the eggs more clearly. It belongs to the family Belostomatidae due to the eggs which are typically laid on the male's wings and carried until they hatch. The male cannot mate during this period. The males invest considerable time and energy in reproduction and females take the role of actively finding males to mate.
Beach of Lake Malawi
Belostomatidae are fierce predators which stalk, capture and feed on aquatic invertebrates, snails, crustaceans, fish and amphibians. The largest species have also been found to capture and feed on baby turtles and water snakes. This can possibly be a lethocerus niloticus
Spotted on Mar 10, 2015
Submitted on Mar 11, 2015
11 Comments
Thank you very much dear Harsha and Mr Sunshine :)
Amazing.
Great find Tiz..
Thank you Leuba for your kind words :) And thank you Hema ;)
Lethocerus sp
Great spotting Tiz and your photos are just brilliant ! Aren't the eggs amazing.
Sckel already gave me the family, but thank you for your effort Hema :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belostomati...
I was about to put my fins to dive. O.O Thanks for warning.
Beautiful, but the lake has the Bilharzia parasite, so one have to think twise before swimming...
Belostomatidae.
beautiful place. *.*