Toe-biter
Lethocerus americanus (Leidy, 1847)
Status not recordedinsects
The toe-biter (Lethocerus americanus) is a species in the family Belostomatidae, order Hemiptera.
No freely licensed photo yet
Quick facts about the toe-biter
- Weight
- Not recorded
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- Not recorded
- Young per litter or clutch
- Not recorded
- Conservation status
- Not recorded
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
Where does the toe-biter live?
Not recorded
Is the toe-biter endangered?
No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.
How is the toe-biter classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumArthropoda
- classInsecta
- orderHemiptera
- familyBelostomatidae
- genusLethocerus
- SpeciesLethocerus americanus (Leidy, 1847)
Other names and names in other languages (6)
- American giant water bugEnglish
- Electric light bugEnglish
- Giant water bugEnglish
- léthocèreFrench
- Léthocère d'AmériqueFrench
- Punaise d'eau géante d'AmériqueFrench
Relatives of the toe-biter
Other species in the same genus Lethocerus.
Asian giant water bug
Lethocerus indicus
Indo-East Mediterranean giant water bug
Lethocerus patruelis
Uhler's water bug
Lethocerus uhleri
Australasian giant water bug
Lethocerus insulanus
African giant water bug
Lethocerus cordofanus
Madagascan giant water bug
Lethocerus oculatus
CompareToe-biter vs Asian giant water bugToe-biter vs Indo-East Mediterranean giant water bugToe-biter vs Uhler's water bugToe-biter vs Australasian giant water bug
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
What kind of animal is the toe-biter?
The toe-biter (Lethocerus americanus) belongs to the family Belostomatidae in the order Hemiptera.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits · CC BY 4.0 · v1
Oliveira, B.F., São-Pedro, V.A., Santos-Barrera, G., Penone, C. & Costa, G.C. (2017) AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits. Scientific Data 4: 170123. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.123. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4644424.v5 - AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Toe-biter (Lethocerus americanus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/toe-biter
“Toe-biter (Lethocerus americanus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/toe-biter.
@misc{toe_biter_2026,
title = {Toe-biter (Lethocerus americanus)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/toe-biter},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}