Belly flop!!! You’ve seen them. Maybe you’ve done one and felt one — a stretched-out dive into the swimming pool in which your belly smacks the water hard. Then it’s splash, gurgle, sink! Now imagine belly flopping without sinking or hurting.
You land on the surface, and then stand up and walk across the pool on top of the water. Well, you might just do it if you were an insect called the water strider. That skinny, six-legged bug, which looks like a mosquito, has the amazing ability to leap great distances and land on top of water without plunging below the surface.
Scientists have already solved the mystery of how this bug, also known as a pond skater or water bug, scoots across the surface of lakes and ponds. It does this by pushing its legs backward against the surface of the water like the oars of a rowing-boat, then gliding forward. Now, scientists in Korea have solved another mystery about the water strider: How on Earth does this bug manage to leap onto the water without sinking"
To solve the mystery, Ho-Young Kim and Duck-Gyu Lee imitated the water strider’s movements by dropping little balls of water-repellent material onto the surface of water at different speeds. Then they carefully recorded the motion of the droplets with special cameras. The scientists found that speed counts. The droplets — and the water strider — must hit the surface at just the right speed. Too slow or too fast, and they sink.
Water striders rely on this fancy footwork to catch and eat other insects, both living and dead, that float on the surface of the water. The researchers also hope to use this new knowledge in other practical ways. They may design water-walking robots, for instance. -American Chemical Society
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