Kirby's Backswimmer

Notonecta kirbyi · Order: Hemiptera · Family: Notonectidae

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Kirby's Backswimmer
Photo: Don Loarie, CC BY

Kirby's backs-wimmer lives in North America. It is found in North American habitats.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it lives

It occurs in North America.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it comes from

Its native range is North America.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 18 of 51 states and DC. Most records: California, Utah, Colorado, Oregon, New Mexico, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona.

Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.

Source: GBIF

Status: native in North America; native in Canada; native in United States. Source: iNaturalist

Months it is reported in the US

JFMAMJJASOND

Source: GBIF

More photos

Kirby's Backswimmer photo 3
Photo: Konshau Duman, CC BY
Kirby's Backswimmer photo 4
Photo: Bennett Grappone, CC BY
Kirby's Backswimmer photo 5
Photo: colorful-corvid, CC BY
Kirby's Backswimmer photo 6
Photo: Emily Herriott, CC BY

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notonecta_kirbyi

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-23.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

Every fact on Bug FAQ comes from a named source (university extension sites, government agencies, GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia). The source is linked next to each section. If we have no source for something, we leave it out.