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The verocious giant water bug devoring a baby turtle

One night while exploring the japanese ricefields in search for water bugs, Dr Shin-ya Ohba managed to record a bizarre behaviour never seen before.

In a ditch next to a rice field, Dr Ohba observed a giant water bug (Kirkaldyia deyrolli) eating a juvenile turtle! Using its front legs the giant insect gripped the turtle and inserted its proboscis-like rostrum into the prey in order to feed. Although the large bugs of the Lethocerinae family have been known to prey upon small vertebrates including fish and frogs, this unusual predator-prey reversal had never been seen before.

The giant water bugs have even been observed to eat water snakes!

Since the giant water bugs are known to only attack moving prey, Dr Ohba suggests the voracious insect not only fed on the dead turtle but actually captured and killed it before feeding on it.

This rather anecdotal but important observation was published in the journal Entomological Science.

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Written by Jolle Jolles

Jolle Jolles is a zoologist working at the University of Cambridge with a love for natural history and animal behaviour and enjoys fascinating others about our weird and wonderful natural world. Follow Jolle on Twitter or sent him a personal message.

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