Upside-down-swimmers
Guides
Pleidae
pygmy backswimmers, pleids
Pleidae, the pygmy backswimmers, is a family of minute aquatic true bugs (Hemiptera: Nepomorpha) containing approximately 52 species in four genera. Adults measure only 2–3.5 mm and inhabit stagnant or slow-moving freshwater with abundant vegetation. They are predatory, feeding on mosquito larvae and other small arthropods, and swim upside-down while carrying an air reserve beneath the body. The family is distributed worldwide except polar regions and remote oceanic islands, with genus Plea in the Old World, Neoplea in the Americas, Paraplea globally in warmer regions, and the recently described Heteroplea from Venezuela.