Bulgarians Capture Unique Footage of Europe's Biggest Water Bug

This image shows an adult giant water bug,Lethocerus patruelis. Photo by Mario Langourov (CC-BY 3.0)

A team of Bulgarian researchers have shot a movie showing for the first time how the biggest European water bug is killing and eating a small fish, announced the electronic issue examiner.com

The video is shot by Bulgarians Nikolay Simeonov and Mario Langurov and is presented in the journal Zookeys by Bulgarian and Russian colleagues, led by Snejana Grozeva from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences /BAS/.

The video shows how the insect, hiding behind a sea plant, instantly attacks and eats a small fish.

The video can be seen HERE.

The members of the research team shot the movie while aiming to examine the unusual sex chromosome development in the largest bug in Europe -Lethocerus patruelis .

During the research, specimen were discovered in many areas of Southern Bulgaria - the district of Burgas-based oil refinery Lukoil, , in the region of Elhovo, in the rivers Maritza, Struma and Tundzha, and in the Kresna Gorge, among others.

Lethocerus patruelis  is the biggest European water bug that can grow as long as 8-12 sm.

The bugs are known for injecting a digestive mixture of chemicals into their pray that they eat afterwards.

People bitten by the insect report that the bite is extremely painful, probably due to the injected saliva mixture.

The insect, although commonly met in water habitats among the Balkan Peninsula, has been considered as very rarely encountered on the territories of Bulgaria.

Its current presence in the Southern Bulgarian regions shows that the bug is expanding its range probably due to the climate change.

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