Overview
These exclusively marine semiaquatic bugs are rarely encountered by collectors as they live in association with coral reefs.
The Hermatobatidae are wingless bugs that live in the cracks and crevices of coral reefs or on the surface of water surrounding coral reefs. They are primarily predacious, though they have also been recorded as feeding on algae. During high tide they secrete themselves in the clefts and fissures of the coral, surrounding themselves with an air bubble, emerging to feed again at low tide.
Distribution
Hermatobates haddoni
and
Hermatobates weddi
are both from the tropical northern coast of Australia.