Aquarius najas

Aquarius najas
Two Aquarius najas mating
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Suborder: Heteroptera
Infraorder: Gerromorpha
Superfamily: Gerroidea
Family: Gerridae
Subfamily: Gerrinae
Genus: Aquarius
Species: A. najas
Binomial name
Aquarius najas
(De Geer, 1773)
Synonyms

Gerris najas (De Geer 1773)

Aquarius najas, also known as the river skater,[1] is a species of aquatic bug.[2] It was formerly known as Gerris najas, but the subgenus Aquarius was elevated to generic rank in 1990 on the basis of phylogenetic analysis.[3][4]

Habitat

This species usually lives in the stony margins of rivers.[5]

Behaviour

Aquarius najas spends the winter as adults. In the spring, they form pairs, and before mating, row about together on the surface during the daytime. At night, they separate, and the females lay their eggs beneath the water in closely packed patches. Normally the eggs are laid on the surface of flat stones.[5]

References

  1. "Aquarius najas (River skater) (Gerris najas)". Pir.uniprot.org. Retrieved 2011-08-29.
  2. Aquarius najas at the Encyclopedia of Life
  3. Andersen, Nils Møller (1990). "Phylogeny and taxonomy of water striders, genus Aquarius Schellenberg (Insecta, Hemiptera, Gerridae), with a new species from Australia". Steenstrupia. 16 (4): 3781. Abstract
  4. Gallant, Sharon L.; Fairbairn, Daphne J. (1996). "A New Species of Aquarius from the Southeastern United States, with Electrophoretic Analysis of the Clade Containing Gerris, Limnoporus, and Aquarius (Hemiptera: Gerridae)". Annals of the Entomological Society of America. 89 (5): 637644. Abstract
  5. 1 2 Brinkhurst, R. O. (1966) "Population dynamics of the large pond-skater Gerris najas Degeer (Hemiptera-Heteroptera)." The Journal of Animal Ecology Vol. 35, No. 1 : 13-25. Abstract

External links

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