{{Short description|Genus of true bugs}} {{Automatic taxobox | image = Diplonychusjaponicus.jpg | image_caption=Male ''Appasus japonicus'' with eggs | taxon = Appasus | authority = Amyot and Serville, 1843<ref>Amyot & Serville (1843). (Roret's Suite à Buffon) ''Hémiptères'': page 430.</ref> | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = see text }}
'''''Appasus''''' (from {{langx|sa|अप्|ap|lit=water}} and {{langx|sa|पशु|pashu|lit=beast; animal}}<ref>Amyot CJ-B, Audinet-Serville, JG (1843) Deuxième partie. Homoptères. ''Homoptera Latr. Histoire naturelle des Insectes. Hémiptères. Librairie Encyclopédique de Roret''. Paris. i-lxxvi, 1-676.</ref>) is a genus of giant water bugs (family Belostomatidae) found in freshwater habitats in Asia and Africa.<ref name=Capinera2008>{{cite book | editor=Capinera, J.L. |year=2008 | title=Encyclopedia of Entomology | url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaento00capi_189 | url-access=limited | publisher=Springer | page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaento00capi_189/page/n1683 1620] | edition=2 | isbn=978-1-4020-6242-1 }}</ref>
Giant water bugs exhibit male parental care. In ''Appasus'' and other species in the subfamily Belostomatinae (but not subfamily Lethocerinae), the female glues the eggs onto the male's back, and the male tends them until the eggs hatch.<ref>{{cite book |author=Robert L. Smith |date=1997 |chapter=Evolution of paternal care in the giant water bugs (Hemiptera: Belostomatidae) | editor=Jae C. Choe | editor2=Bernard J. Crespi |name-list-style=amp|title=The Evolution of Social Behavior in Insects and Arachnids Sociality |url=https://archive.org/details/evolutionsocialb00choe |url-access=limited |pages=[https://archive.org/details/evolutionsocialb00choe/page/n124 116]–149 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-511-72195-3 |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511721953.007}}</ref>
==Species== Partial list of species:
{{Incomplete list|date=April 2018}}
*''Appasus ampliatus'' <small>(Montandon, 1914)</small> *''Appasus capensis'' <small>Mayr, 1871</small> *''Appasus grassei'' <small>(Poisson, 1937)</small> *''Appasus japonicus'' <small>(Vuillefroy, 1864)</small> *''Appasus major'' <small>(Esaki, 1934)</small> *''Appasus quadrivittatus'' <small>Bergroth, 1893</small> *''Appasus stappersi'' <small>(Montandon, 1916)</small>
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [http://www.plosntds.org/article/slideshow.action?uri=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pntd.0000731&imageURI=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pntd.0000731.g002# image]{{dead link|date=October 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
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Category:Belostomatidae Category:Nepomorpha genera Category:Taxa named by Charles Jean-Baptiste Amyot Category:Taxa named by Jean Guillaume Audinet-Serville Category:Hemiptera of Asia
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