Found what I thought was a normal stick insect in the pool and thought I should rescue it before it drowned. Scooped it out and placed it in the pool edging, then noticed it was not like any stick insects that I had observed. Took a photo and later uploaded to iNaturalist for identification and found what I suspected was the correct Id "Water Stick Insect or Needle Bug" Ranatra dispar .
( The front legs of bugs in Ranatra are strong and used to grasp prey. They typically eat other insects, tadpoles and small fish, which they pierce with their proboscis and inject a saliva which both sedates and begins to digest their prey. They are sit-and-wait predators that reside among water plants and position themselves head-down with their grasping legs extended out to surprise passing prey. "wikipedia")
I regularly find the more common Water Scorpion (Laccotrephes tristis is a species of water scorpion also commonly known as a toe-biter, that occurs Australia-wide and is part of the family Nepidae.pion "wikipedia")
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