We knew about jellyfish. Now a new animal poses a potential danger to tourists swimming in the Mediterranean. It’s an insect: a water bug. The species, sighted only since 2020 on the eastern coasts of the island of Cyprus and in Puglia in the summer of 2023, precisely by a bather on the beaches of Rosa Marina, in the Brindisi area, can exceed 12 centimeters.
An insect with the appearance of a large bedbug, which had never been observed on the Mediterranean island according to the study by the Grigore Antipa National Museum of Natural History, published by the magazine Geo. Its bite would be the worst that an insect can inflict, reports the same magazine.
It attacks crustaceans, amphibians, fish, aquatic snails but sometimes also turtles, even the toes of tourists, hence its nickname of ”toe nibbler”, reports Dr. Diana D’Agata, Veterinary Surgeon in the United Kingdom”. The study mentions a “non-negligible” number of specimens observed, but adds that it is still too early to confirm a real settlement of the animal on the island.
But why did some individuals migrate westward? There are several possible reasons, according to the three researchers who authored the study: wind, sea currents, but also a “decrease in food resources in their initial distribution area”. The study also talks about flying individuals who may have been attracted by the lights of the boats. The large insect “Lethocerus Patruelis” is widespread in South-Eastern Europe, including Greece, Albania, Serbia and Bosnia, Israel, Lebanon and Syria. And the ships that frequently cross the Adriatic from one shore to the other, according to entomologists’ hypothesis, would be the means through which this giant insect arrived on the Apulian beaches.
Don’t worry though. This would be a rare presence, the only previous sightings of which date back to 1997, 2009, 2020 and the latter in the summer of 2023. WWF Puglia itself reported it in the summer of 2020 with a post on its social profiles. It seems not to be dangerous for humans, according to some short studies, but only for the fauna ecosystem. And in any case only in case of endemic presence. In the case of isolated presences, we further read, there should be no danger to humans and the territory.
”However – warns Giovanni D’Agata, president of the “Rights Desk – during your next beach holiday, carefully observe where you put your feet while bathing in our clear and heavenly waters”.
