We've identified the giant waterbug, Lethocerus americanus, from two
different lakes in King County over the last couple of years: Shady Lake,
which is located east of Renton near Lake Youngs, and Lake Langlois, which
is just southeast of Carnation. They are probably quite rare, but there is
little doubt when you find one; those mandibles are memorable!

Sally Bartley Abella
Lake Stewardship Program
Water and Land Resources Division
King County Dept of Natural Resources and Parks
201 S. Jackson St, Suite 600
Seattle, Washington 98104-3855
phone: 206-296-8382
FAX : 206-296-0192



Message: 14
Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2006 20:25:20 -0700
From: Dennis Paulson <dennispaulson at comcast.net>
Subject: [Tweeters] giant water bugs
To: Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Message-ID: <7434CCBA-D681-4855-B50E-062F1829FA5E at comcast.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

I know of two giant water bugs that have been found in lakes in the
Tacoma area in recent years. We have one of them as a specimen in the
Slater Museum. I'll admit I haven't seen any myself in the state in
almost four decades of searching for dragonflies at many, many water
bodies. However, Lethocerus americanus is known to occur west to
British Columbia and south in the Rocky Mountains to Utah, so I
wonder if it might possibly be a rare native in Washington.
-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382

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