Semi-aquatic facts for kids

Atlantic mudskippers, amphibious fish of mangrove swamps and tidal flats

The white Egyptian lotus, a semiaquatic angiosperm

Mangoves are shrubs or trees that are well adapted to grow in very saline water, usually at estuaries of rivers

Semi-aquatic animals spend part of their life on land, and part in the water. Such animals include:

• Some insects, for example dragonflies spend part of their life in the water
  • Whirlygig beetles live on top of the water.
• Amphibious fish spend some of their life on dry land.
• Many tetrapods spend extended periods of time in the water
  • Amphibians (toads, salamanders, newts) need a wet skin for the life stages they spend outside the water
• Many crustaceans live on the seashore, and at lakesides, and have adapted to being submerged.
• Some spiders.

Some plants have also adapted to being both in the water and on land.

Images for kids

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  Pachygrapsus marmoratus, a semiterrestrial crab

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  Hunting stance of Dolomedes minor, a semiaquatic spider