''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. 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.

Etymology

' Nepa' is a classical Latin word for a ' scorpion' or '

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all the ...

Species

The following species are included in ''Nepa'':GBIF: ''Nepa'' Linnaeus, 1758
/ref> * ''

Nepa anophthalma The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is a United States environmental law that promotes the enhancement of the environment and established the President's Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). The law was enacted on January 1, 1970.Un ...

'' Decu et al., 1994 (see Movile Cave) * '' Nepa apiculata''

Uhler Uhler is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis (district) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It belongs to the ''Verbandsgemeinde'' of Kaste ...

, 1862 * '' Nepa cinerea'' Linnaeus,

1758 Events January–March * January 1 – Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linné) publishes in Stockholm the first volume (''Animalia'') of the 10th edition of Systema Naturae, 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'', the sta ...

- type species * '' Nepa dollfusi'' Esaki, 1928 * '' Nepa grandis'' Linnæus, 1758 * '' Nepa hoffmanni'' Esaki, 1925 * '' Nepa monteilsensis'' Nel, 1988 * '' Nepa plana'' Sulzer, 1776 * '' Nepa remyi'' Poisson, 1961 * '' Nepa rubra'' Linnaeus, 1758 * '' Nepa rustica'' Fabricius, 1775 * '' Nepa sardiniensis'' Hungerford, 1928 * '' Nepa seurati'' Bergevin, 1926 Among these, ''N. apiculata'' of eastern North American (Canada and United States), and ''N. cinerea'' of Europe, northern Africa and northern Asia, are widespread. The remaining have restricted ranges in

Corsica Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...

, Sardinia, Romania, Morocco and northeastern Asia. One of these, ''N. anophthalma'', is the only cave-adapted species in the family Nepidae, found in Movile Cave. Linnaeus listed a number of additional species in his description of the genus, most of which either are considered

synonyms A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

or have been moved to other genera.

References

External links

* *
''Nepa''
o
bugguide.net
{{Taxonbar, from=Q6994314 Nepidae Nepomorpha genera