pygmy backswimmers
pleidae latin

Pygmy backswimmers inhabit lacustrine ecosystems, where they occur in loose groups.

Similar to the true backswimmers, pygmy backswimmers carry an air reserve with them which is periodically replenished by a dash to the water's surface.

Pleidae, the pygmy backswimmers, is a family of aquatic insects in the order Hemiptera (infraorder Nepomorpha, or "true water bugs").

Either the pygmy backswimmers are united with the Helotrephidae in the superfamily Pleoidea, or these two and the true backswimmers are placed in a single superfamily Notonectoidea.

Though the hindlegs are hairless and appear ill-suited for swimming compared to the stout "flippers" of the water boatmen (Corixidae) or the backswimmers (Notonectidae), the small size of the pygmy backswimmers makes for different physics and allows them to swim well regardless.

This is ultimately because as all true water bugs, Pleidae are air-breathers without gills.

In the case of the Pleidae the antennae are shorter than the head is long and only consist of three segments.

Possibly they make sounds to maintain contact among the loose swarms in which the Pleidae roam their habitat.

By and large the Pleidae may be considered an effectively flightless group when it comes to biogeography and dispersal into new habitat.

Given their inability to fly well - if they can fly at all -, it is not surprising that the Pleidae do not have as many endemic island taxa as some other Heteroptera (true bugs).