| Nepa | |
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| Nepa cinerea | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hemiptera |
| Suborder: | Heteroptera |
| Family: | Nepidae |
| Subfamily: | Nepinae |
| Genus: | Nepa Linnaeus, 1758[1] |
| Synonyms | |
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Nepa is a genus belonging to the family Nepidae, known as water scorpions. There are six species found in freshwater habitats in the Northern Hemisphere.[2][3]
They are oval-bodied, aquatic insects with raptorial front legs. Like other members of the Nepidae, they have a pair of nonretractable cerci-like breathing tubes on the terminal abdominal segment, a characteristic which readily distinguishes them from the Belostomatidae. Their primary staples are other insects and small aquatic vertebrates. They can inflict a painful bite when handled.[4]
- ^ Carl von Linné (1757). Systema naturae (10 ed.). p. 440.
- ^ S.L. Keffer; J.T. Polhemus; J.E. McPherson (1990). "What Is Nepa hoffmanni (Heteroptera: Nepidae)? Male Genitalia Hold the Answer, and Delimit Species Groups". Journal of the New York Entomological Society. 98 (2): 154–162.
- ^ Vasile Decu; Magdalena Gruia; S. L. Keffer; Serban Mircea Sarbu (1994). "Stygobiotic Waterscorpion, Nepa anophthalma, n. sp. (Heteroptera: Nepidae), from a Sulfurous Cave in Romania". Annals of the Entomological Society of America. 87 (6): 755–761. doi:10.1093/aesa/87.6.755.
- ^ Donald Borror; Richard White (1970). A field guide to the insects of America north of Mexico. Houghton Mifflin. p. 114. ISBN 978-0-395-07436-7.