Water strider
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Adult water striders can be seen from spring through autumn.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Water strider
- Scientific name
- Aquarius paludum
- Japanese name
- アメンボ
- Group
- Insects
- Class
- Insecta
- Order
- Hemiptera
- Family
- Gerridae
- Genus
- Aquarius
A true bug, related to stink bugs, that lives on ponds, marshes and rivers.
Water striders live floating on the water surface on their long, thin legs. Their front legs are short, so they seem to have fewer legs.
It feeds by sucking the body fluids of insects and other creatures that fall onto the water. Some have long wings and some have short wings.
Basic data
- Size
- Body length: 11–16 mm
- Range
- Hokkaido to Kyushu and the Nansei Islands
Where the Water strider has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- アメンボ
- 简体中文
- 圆臀大黾蝽
- 繁體中文
- 圓臀大黽蝽
- 한국어
- 소금쟁이
- Français
- Gerris palustre
- Deutsch
- Flussläufer
- Italiano
- Gerride di palude
- Русский
- Водомерка болотная
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- まちだエコライフ推進公社 — まちだのいきものたち アメンボChecked: 2026-11-03
- 守山市 — 美崎公園とその周辺の自然（アメンボ類）Checked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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