Identification
This waterscorpion is very slender, about 1 inch long (25 mm) without legs and siphon tube. The long appendage at the end of the abdomen is a siphon used to breath while it is submerged. It is predatory on small aquatic insects using its front legs to capture prey. Photos were taken in the floodplain pond in July 2013.
These waterscorpions are probably common in ponds in this area.
The specimen shown here is probably the Brown Waterscorpion (Ranatra fusca). It is the most common species and distributed throughout North America except for Florida and northern Canada.
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