All you need to know about the deadly giant water bug that attacks anything that moves – even humans, hence its nickname ‘toe-biter’.
Meet the world’s largest, deadliest bug that can suck the life out of fish many times its size – effectively turning its prey into one giant protein smoothie
Most aquatic insects avoid fish. Yet Trinidad’s giant water bug Lethocerus maximus hunts them, along with frogs, salamanders and other critters.
The biggest true bug on Earth, L maximus grows to nearly 12cm long and can take down a vertebrate many times its size.
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How does Trinidad’s giant water bug catch its prey?
Often nestled among vegetation near, on or under water, it typically catches prey by surprise, latching on to a passer-by with hulkish raptorial’ legs, sinking a dagger-like beak into the victim and injecting a blend of tissue-eating enzymes that liquefy its insides. The bug then sucks up the puréed bodyparts like a protein shake. It attacks anything that moves – even humans, hence its nickname ‘toe-biter’.
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There’s no escaping it in deeper waters. It’s a good swimmer, with paddle-like legs and strong muscles. It can also scuba dive, breathing oxygen trapped under its wings. If the supply dwindles, the bug need not surface – it uses an extendible, snorkel-like appendage called a siphon to tap into a bubble and rofill it-“
But a giant water bug’s most dangerous weapon may be its acumen – at least judging from an anecdote reported, fittingly, in the entomology journal Psyche.
A water bug was floating on the surface of a creek above a 25cm-long trout, intermittently wiggling one of its legs until the fish lunged at it and both animals disappeared. Some time later, the trout resurfaced – belly up, with the insect clinging to its head. The bug’s trick had clearly worked, turning this would-be predator into prey – and ultimately a super-sized sushi smoothie.
Yop image: Jhou5, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons