Giant Water Bug

Yes — routinely, for the large species. A giant water bug hunts by ambush, hanging motionless from vegetation near the surface with only the tip of its abdomen breaking the water to breathe, and when a fish, tadpole, frog, or newt passes within reach it strikes out with powerful, hooked front legs and grabs it. It then drives its beak in, injects a cocktail of enzymes that both paralyse the prey and begin digesting it from the inside, and feeds by suction. The largest Lethocerus have been recorded and photographed subduing prey many times their own weight, including water snakes, small turtles, and, in a few documented cases, ducklings and small birds that landed on the water.

Because the bug is injecting the same fluid it uses to liquefy prey. A defensive strike from the beak delivers saliva loaded with proteolytic (protein-digesting) enzymes into your skin and flesh, which is why the pain is not just a puncture but a spreading, burning, throbbing ache that can last several hours, sometimes with local swelling and numbness afterward. It is frequently ranked among the most painful insect bites or stings, alongside the bullet ant and tarantula hawk. There is no venom that threatens life or limb — the damage is localised — but people who have been "toe-bitten" while wading tend to remember it vividly.

The name "electric-light bug" comes from the adults' strong attraction to artificial lights. Giant water bugs are capable fliers and disperse between water bodies by flying at night, and large numbers turn up around streetlights, porch lights, and lit gas stations, sometimes far from any pond, where people find the big, flat, brown insects crawling on the ground. "Alligator tick" and "toe-biter" both refer to the painful bite delivered to swimmers and waders. The scientific family name, Belostomatidae, and the common name "giant water bug" cover roughly 150 species; only the biggest, in the genus Lethocerus, reach the sizes that make headlines.

In many giant water bugs, yes, and it is one of the best-known examples of paternal care in insects. The pattern differs by group. In Lethocerus, the female lays her eggs in a mass on a plant stem sticking out of the water, and the male stays with the clutch, climbing up periodically to wet the eggs and guarding them from predators and drying. In the genus Belostoma and its relatives, the behaviour is more extreme — the female cements her fertilised eggs in rows directly onto the back of the male's wing covers, and he then carries the entire brood around with him, surfacing to expose them to air and doing "push-ups" to keep water flowing over them, until they hatch. He cannot fly or mate again while loaded, so it is a substantial commitment.