What are some underwater insects in Britain?

Question

What are some underwater insects in Britain?

Answer 1

Scuba flies....     and ww2 U-bugs...   :)

Answer 2

Ah the old classic "water boatman"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_boatm...

Pictures rubbish so look at these

http://images.google.co.uk/images?source...

Answer 3

There are no true underwater insects. All insects require oxygen to bereathe. There is a family of insects though, that do live near the water, although they still need oxygen to breathe underwater. They are called true bugs, or Hemiptera. Although, these insects still need to breathe air. They create  a special a bubble that helps them breathe for long peroids underwater. They eventually come up to the surface to create another air bubble. These insects are the only true animals correctly identified as "bugs". People may say that all other insects and arachnids are considered bugs, but they are totally wrong. Hemipterans are the only "true bugs". The aquatic species of some of these true bugs are listed below:

Giant Water Bug -http://www.life.uiuc.edu/ib/109/Insect%2...

Water  Boatman- http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/ent525/w...

Backswimmer- http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/ent525/w...

Pond Skaters and Water Skimmers- Although they don't truely go underwater, they drift on it to catch small animals and dead organic matter as food. -

http://www.friendsofwarnhamlnr.org.uk/im...

Water Scorpion- Not  a true scorpion, but in the Hemitpera family. It likes quite a bit like the giant waterbug, except that it doesn't use the air bubble technique. It uses its long tube at the end of it to take in air from the surface, like a scuba diver. This water bug is always found at the surface of ponds, wating for a potential small fish or tadpole to pass by. - http://www.scientificillustrator.com/art...

Heres a Diving Beetle- Not a "true bug", but of course, a beetle that swims underwater and catchers tadpoles, fish, and other aquatic animals. It also, just like many of the aquatic "true bugs", uses the air bubble technique.

Here are some insects that have larvae that are fully aquatic, and have gills of their own. These  insects lose these gills when they become adults, when they take the final stage of molting.

A Dragonfly Nymph- http://wadifish.com/gallery/large/lg%20d...

A Damselfly Nymph- http://www.dkimages.com/discover/preview...

A Mayfly Nymph- http://www.life.uiuc.edu/ib/109/Insect%2...

Mosquito Larvae- http://nwnature.net/macros/images/75.jpg

Caddisfly Larvae- Those shell-like structures you see them in are actually different particals from the water it surrounds itself in to help protect itself from predators. http://www.dkimages.com/discover/preview...

There are  many other water dwelling insects here I didn't mention. But, there's thousands of different types of them and I only know around  a couple of dozen, or so.