More common of the two families that run around on the water.
Front legs short, middle and hind legs long and slender.
Middle legs arising closer to the hind legs than to the front legs.
The common species have an elongate abdomen; some species with the abdomen
very short.
Species in the family Gerridae are distinguished from water-striding Veliidae
by noting that the middle legs of the latter arise about midway between
the front and hind legs. Some veliids are known as broad-shouldered water
striders owing to the abdomen tapering posteriorly from the relatively
wide mesothorax.
References:
Pages 116-117 in D. J. Borror and R. E. White. 1970. A Field Guide to the
Insects. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
Page 210 in J. A. Slater and R. M. Baranowski. 1978. How to Know the True
Bugs. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Co. 256 p.
Page 141 in R. G. Bland and H. E. Jaques. 1978. How to Know the Insects,
3rd ed. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Co. 409 p.
Page 298 in D. J. Borror, C. A. Triplehorn, and N. F. Johnson. 1989. An Introduction
to the Study of Insects, 6th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders College Publishing.
875 p.
Page 424 in H. V. Daly, J. T. Doyen, and A. H. Purcell III. 1998. Introduction
to Insect Biology and Diversity, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press. 680 p.
