The other Toe-Biter

danielj

January 19th, 2008 at 1:00 am

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Strange water bug near Tucson
Hello Bugman!
Thanks a lot for informing me on the Dolomedes spider! First described 1973 – really rare arachnid, as it seems! In a pool nearby some of these poor creatures were swimming – in a pond one inch deep! The sun was shining directly onto them; and they could only hide under some small rocks. I don’t know if they made it to the next monsoon season. I took this guy and threw him into a larger pool with lots of amphibia larvae. Hope he didn’t eat ‘em all up! Do you have any idea what kind of water bug that might me? About 3 cm long; and with a fang of at least 4 mm, as I observed on a dead speciman. Thanks a lot!
Greetings from Daniel Jestrzemski

abedus daniel The other Toe Biter abedus daniel 2 The other Toe Biter

Hi Daniel,
This is a Giant Water Bug in the family Belostomatidae. They are frequently called Toe-Biters. This is not one of the species in the genus Lethocerus, the most frequent submissions to our site. We believe this is Abedus indentatus, but sadly, there is only one image on BugGuide of a male encrusted with eggs and that image does not show the outline of the insect. Charles Hogue describes the species in Insects of the Los Angeles Basin, but once again, the image is of a male encrusted with eggs. If this is not Abedus indentatus, then it is in the genus Belostoma, also pictured on BugGuide. Our reasons for believing this to be Adedus as opposed to Belostoma are based on the shape of your specimen. The abdomen is rounded as opposed to pointed and the thorax of your specimen is shaped differently than Belostoma as well. Perhaps when Eric Eaton contacts us, the mystery will be solved.

Daniel:
I believe the toe-biter in question is in the genus Abedus. Not sure how many species there are in California.
Eric