Abstract Giant water bugs (Hemiptera: Belostomatidae) are predatory aquatic insects that mainly prey on other aquatic insects, anurans (juveniles and adults), small fishes, and occasionally reptiles (snakes and turtles), birds, and small mammals (bats). Although species of the belostomatid genus Lethocerus have been reported preying on snakes and turtles in the Nearctic region, there are no reports of lizards and turtles being consumed by nymphs and adults of this genus in the Neotropics. Here, we report the opportunistic predation of a juvenile tropidurid lizard ( Tropidurus torquatus ) and a hatchling chelid turtle ( Phrynops geoffroanus ) by a nymph and an adult female giant water bug ( Lethocerus delpontei ) in a disused swimming pool on a farm in the municipality of Conceição do Pará, Minas Gerais State, Southeast Brazil. To our knowledge, this represents not only the first record of lizard and turtle predation by L. delpontei , but also the first record of T. torquatus and P. geoffroanus as prey items of belostomatids.
Silva et al. (Thu,) studied this question.