Ranatra

Taxobox
name = "Ranatra"

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image_width = 250px
image_caption = "Ranatra chinensis"
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
classis = Insecta
ordo = Hemiptera
familia = Nepidae
genus = "Ranatra"
genus_authority = Fabricius, 1790
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision = "R. chinensis"
"R. fusca"
"R. fabricius"
"R. linearis"
and others.

"Ranatra" is a genus of generally slender predatory members of the family Nepidae, known as "water stick-insects" or "water scorpions". Their front legs are strong and are used to grasp prey. They breathe through a pair of long breathing pipes extending from their tails. They eat tadpoles, small fish and other insects, which they pierce with their beak and inject a saliva which both sedates and begins to digest their prey. They overwinter as adults, and lay eggs in spring. The females lay eggs in vegetation. The eggs take typically two to four weeks to hatch, and the young take about two months to mature. When full grown they are 4-5 in.

"Ranatra fusca" is the namesake of an award for exemplary creativity in the international student problem solving competition Odyssey of the Mind, because the insect served as the inspiration for a particularly creative solution to a problem in the early days of the program.