Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Genus Aquarius

Water Striders - Mating Pair - Aquarius remigis - male - female Water striders, Aquarius remigis? - Aquarius water strider, Arizona - Aquarius water strider - Aquarius remigis water strider - Aquarius remigis which water strider? - Aquarius Gerrinae - Aquarius Aquarius  (a great name) remigis? - Aquarius remigis - female
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hemiptera (True Bugs, Cicadas, Hoppers, Aphids and Allies)
Suborder Heteroptera (True Bugs)
Infraorder Gerromorpha (Semiaquatic Bugs)
Superfamily Gerroidea
Family Gerridae (Water Striders)
Subfamily Gerrinae
Genus Aquarius
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
formerly treated as a subgenus of Gerris; reviewed in (1)
Explanation of Names
Aquarius Schellenberg, 1800
Numbers
5 spp. in US, 2 in Canada(2), 18 spp. total
Identification
hind tibia at least 4 times as long as metatarsomere 1; connexival spines prominent; pronotum dull; antennomere 1 more than 0.9 as long as antennomeres 2+3; adults winged or wingless

Gerris: connexival spines not prominent, metatibia <3.3 as long as metatarsomere 1
Limnoporus: antennomere 1 <0.8 length of antennomeres 2+3
Range
worldwide, but mostly holarctic; throughout NA(1)
Habitat
surface of ponds, lakes, slow-moving streams, rivers
Food
aquatic arthropods
Remarks
Taxonomy of the Aquarius remigis group, q.v., needs further study; that group will be likely moved to a separate genus within or sister to the Gerris clade. The only 'true' Aquarius in our area are A. conformis and A. nebularis, both members of A. elongatus group.