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Toe Biter
HI. I found one of these Water Scorpions dead in my living room and did not know what it was until I found your site. After I found it, I put it in a box with a lid, and the next day when we opened it, it smelled like a dead corpse. Can you tell me why?
Gina

Hi Gina,
Your dead Toe-Biter began to smell like a corpse because it is a corpse. Insect collectors preserve most specimens by letting them dry out. If you placed the still fresh specimen in an enclosed space, it could not dry and began to decay, hence the smell. Your specimen appears to be a Giant Water Bug, Lethocerus americanus, and not one of the Nepa Water Scorpions which rarely fly. We are getting a second opinion on the very long breathing tube your photo illustrates, and are unsure if this is an individual anomoly. Your image is beautiful.

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