Semiaquatic

Atlantic mudskippers, amphibious fish of mangrove swamps and tidal flats

Pachygrapsus marmoratus, a semiterrestrial crab

Hunting stance of Dolomedes minor, a semiaquatic spider

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

Semiaquatic animals include:

• Vertebrates
  • Semiaquatic tetrapods
  • Amphibious fish; also several types of normally fully aquatic fish such as the grunion that spawn in the intertidal zone
• Semiterrestrial echinoderms of the intertidal zone, such as the "cliff-clinging" sea urchin Colobocentrotus atratus and the starfish Pisaster ochraceus
• Arthropods
  • Aquatic insects (e.g., dragonflies) with at least one nonaquatic life-cycle stage (e.g., adults), or amphibious insects (e.g., amphibious caterpillars)^{[note 1]}
  • Semiaquatic springtails, such as Anurida maritima
  • Semiterrestrial malacostracan crustaceans (e.g., many crabs, such as Pachygrapsus marmoratus,^{[note 2]} some amphipods, such as Orchestia gammarellus, some isopods, such as Ligia oceanica and some barnacles, such as Balanus glandula)
  • Horseshoe crabs are mostly aquatic but spawn in the intertidal zone; juveniles live in tidal flats
  • Semiaquatic spiders, 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, a limpet; also amphibious freshwater and marine snails, such as Pomatiopsis or Cerithideopsis scalariformis, respectively
• Semiterrestrial flatworms of the intertidal zone, such as the acotylean Myoramyxa pardalota^[2]

The white Egyptian lotus, a semiaquatic angiosperm

Semiaquatic plants

Semiaquatic plants include:

• Semiaquatic angiosperms (e.g., mangroves, water spinach, water cabbage, and the entire order Nymphaeales)
• Semiaquatic conifers, such as pond cypress
• Semiaquatic ferns, such as Pilularia americana
• A semiaquatic horsetail, Equisetum fluviatile
• Semiaquatic quillworts, such as Isoetes melanospora
• Semiaquatic club mosses, such as Lycopodiella inundata
• Semiaquatic mosses, such as Sphagnum macrophyllum
• Semiaquatic liverworts, such as Riccia fluitans

Notes

References