All life stages are found in shallow still water with rich vegetation, which in some species includes temporary saline pools.

[2] Adults and larvae live attached to pieces of vegetation or debris, and also walk on the underside of the water surface.

The adults live as filter feeders on floating debris like decaying plant material and other decomposing organic remains.

[1] The adult females build a silken-egg case which they attach to their mid-tibiae and held by the hind legs, carried below the abdomen.

[1] The extinct genus Prospercheus from the Late Jurassic of Shar-Teg, Mongolia, has also been considered a close relative of Spercheus, and also placed in Spercheidae.