In
biology, semiaquatic can refer to various types of animals that spend part of their time in water, or plants that naturally grow partially submerged in water. Examples are given below.
Semiaquatic animals
Semi
aquatic animals include:
*
Vertebrates
**
Amphibious fish
Amphibious fish are fish that are able to leave water for extended periods of time. About 11 distantly related genera of fish are considered amphibious. This suggests that many fish genera independently evolved amphibious traits, a process known ...
; also several types of normally fully aquatic fish such as the
grunion and
plainfin midshipman that spawn in the
intertidal zone
** Some amphibians such as
newts and salamanders, and some frogs such as
fire-bellied toads
fire-bellied toads are a group of six species of small frogs (most species typically no longer than ) belonging to the genus ''Bombina''.
The name "fire-bellied" is derived from the brightly colored red- or yellow-and-black patterns on the toa ...
and
wood frogs
''Lithobates sylvaticus'' or ''Rana sylvatica'', commonly known as the wood frog, is a frog species that has a broad distribution over North America, extending from the boreal forest of the north to the southern Appalachians, with several nota ...
.
** Some reptiles such as
crocodilians,
turtles
Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked tu ...
,
water snakes and
marine iguanas
The marine iguana (''Amblyrhynchus cristatus''), also known as the sea iguana, saltwater iguana, or Galápagos marine iguana, is a species of iguana found only on the Galápagos Islands (Ecuador). Unique among modern lizards, it is a marine repti ...
.
**
Penguins.
** Some rodents such as
beavers,
muskrats and
capybaras.
**Some insectivorous mammals such as
desmans
The desman, a snouted and naked-tailed diving insectivore of the tribe Desmanini (also considered a subfamily, Desmaninae), belongs to one of two Eurasian species of the mole family, Talpidae.
This tribe consists of two monotypic genera of semi ...
,
water shrews and
platypuses.
** Some carnivoran mammals, including
seals
Seals may refer to:
* Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly:
** Earless seal, or "true seal"
** Fur seal
* Seal (emblem), a device to impress an emblem, used as a means of a ...
,
polar bears and
otters.
**
Hippopotamuses.
* Semiterrestrial
echinoderm
An echinoderm () is any member of the phylum Echinodermata (). The adults are recognisable by their (usually five-point) radial symmetry, and include starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars, and sea cucumbers, as well as the ...
s of the intertidal zone, such as the "cliff-clinging"
sea urchin ''
Colobocentrotus atratus'' and the
starfish ''
Pisaster ochraceus''
*
Arthropod
Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chiti ...
s
**
Aquatic insect
Aquatic insects or water insects live some portion of their life cycle in the water. They feed in the same ways as other insects. Some ''diving'' insects, such as predatory diving beetles, can hunt for food underwater where land-living insects ca ...
s (e.g.,
dragonflies) with at least one nonaquatic life-cycle stage (e.g.,
adults), or amphibious insects (e.g.,
amphibious caterpillar
Amphibious caterpillar refers to over 40 species of semiaquatic caterpillars endemic to Hawaii that are the only insects that live as readily in water as on land. In 2010, Daniel Rubinoff and Patrick Schmitz at the University of Hawaii at Manoa fir ...
s or the ant ''
Polyrhachis sokolova
'' Polyrhachis sokolova'' is a species of ant from Hong Kong that recently was discovered to be capable of surviving tidal inundations.
Researchers at the James Cook University gained attention in 2006 after finding and reporting this behavior. ...
''). Members of the hemipteran infraorders
Gerromorpha and
Nepomorpha occupy a variety of semiaquatic and aquatic niches, with many of the former locomoting on the water surface; a few of these are marine (e.g., ''
Halobates
''Halobates'' or sea skaters are a genus with over 40 species of water striders. Most ''Halobates'' species are coastal and typically found in sheltered marine habitats (a habitat where a few other genera of water striders also live), but five ...
'', ''
Hermatobates'').
** Semiaquatic
springtail
Springtails (Collembola) form the largest of the three lineages of modern hexapods that are no longer considered insects (the other two are the Protura and Diplura). Although the three orders are sometimes grouped together in a class called ...
s, such as ''
Anurida maritima
''Anurida maritima'' (seashore springtail) is a cosmopolitan collembolan of the intertidal zone. It is often found in aggregations of up to several hundred on the surface of rock-pools.
Description
''A. maritima'' is a wingless animal, typic ...
''
** Semiterrestrial
malacostraca
Malacostraca (from New Latin; ) is the largest of the six classes of crustaceans, containing about 40,000 living species, divided among 16 orders. Its members, the malacostracans, display a great diversity of body forms and include crabs, lobs ...
n
crustacean
Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapoda, decapods, ostracoda, seed shrimp, branchiopoda, branchiopods, argulidae, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopoda, isopods, barnacles, copepods, ...
s (e.g., many
crabs, such as ''
Pachygrapsus marmoratus'', some
amphipods, such as ''
Orchestia gammarellus'', some
isopods, such as ''
Ligia oceanica
''Ligia oceanica'', the sea slater, common sea slater, or sea roach, is a littoral zone woodlouse, living on rocky seashores of the European North Sea and Atlantic coastlines.
''L. oceanica'' is oval, twice as long as broad, and may reach up to ...
'' and some
barnacles, such as ''
Balanus glandula'')
**
Horseshoe crabs are mostly aquatic but spawn in the intertidal zone; juveniles live in tidal flats
** Semiaquatic
spider
Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species ...
s, such as ''
Ancylometes'' or ''
Dolomedes'' (these are distinct from the almost fully aquatic ''
Argyroneta'')
** An amphibious
centipede, ''
Scolopendra cataracta''
* Semiaquatic
annelids, such as the
earthworm ''
Sparganophilus''
*
Molluscs
** Intertidal
bivalves, such as ''
Enigmonia'', which lives on mangroves
** Intertidal
chitons, such as ''
Acanthopleura granulata''
** Semiterrestrial
gastropods, such as the intertidal ''
Patella vulgata
''Patella vulgata'', common name the common limpet or common European limpet is a species of sea snail. It is a typical true limpet; a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Patellidae, with gills.Gofas, S. (2014). Patella vulgata Linnaeus, 1758 ...
'', a
limpet; also amphibious
freshwater and
marine
Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean.
Marine or marines may refer to:
Ocean
* Maritime (disambiguation)
* Marine art
* Marine biology
* Marine debris
* Marine habitats
* Marine life
* Marine pollution
Military ...
snails, such as ''
Pomatiopsis'' or ''
Cerithideopsis scalariformis'', respectively
* Semiterrestrial
flatworms of the intertidal zone, such as the
acotylean ''
Myoramyxa pardalota''
Semiaquatic plants
Semi
aquatic plant
Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae excl ...
s include:
* Semiaquatic
angiosperms (e.g.,
mangroves,
water spinach,
water cabbage, and the entire order
Nymphaeales)
* Semiaquatic
conifers, such as
pond cypress
''Taxodium ascendens'', also known as pond cypress, is a deciduous conifer of the genus '' Taxodium'', native to North America. Many botanists treat it as a variety of bald cypress, '' Taxodium distichum'' (as ''T. distichum'' var. ''imbricatu ...
* Semi
aquatic ferns, such as ''
Pilularia americana
''Pilularia americana'', the American pillwort, is an unusual species of fern. The fronds essentially consist of the petioles only, any form of flattened laminae having been lost. It is in the aquatic fern family Marsileaceae, and is related t ...
''
* A semiaquatic
horsetail, ''
Equisetum fluviatile
''Equisetum fluviatile'', the water horsetail or swamp horsetail, is a vascular plant that commonly grows in dense colonies along freshwater shorelines or in shallow water in ponds, swamps, ditches, and other sluggish or still waters with mud bo ...
''
* Semiaquatic
quillworts, such as ''
Isoetes melanospora
''Isoetes melanospora'', commonly known as black-spored quillwort or black-spored Merlin's grass, is a rare and endangered aquatic lycophyte endemic to the U.S. states of Georgia and South Carolina. It grows exclusively in shallow, temporary pool ...
''
* Semiaquatic
club moss
Lycopodiopsida is a class of vascular plants known as lycopods, lycophytes or other terms including the component lyco-. Members of the class are also called clubmosses, firmosses, spikemosses and quillworts. They have dichotomously branching s ...
es, such as ''
Lycopodiella inundata
''Lycopodiella inundata'' is a species of club moss known by the common names inundated club moss, marsh clubmoss and northern bog club moss. It has a circumpolar and circumboreal distribution, occurring throughout the northern Northern Hemisph ...
''
* Semiaquatic
mosses, such as ''
Sphagnum macrophyllum''
* Semiaquatic
liverworts, such as ''
Riccia fluitans''
Notes
References
{{Reflist
Broad-concept articles
Aquatic ecology