How water striders walk on water? What will happen if they get drowned?
How do water striders walk on water without sinking?
| What will happen if water striders get drowned?
Water striders are one
of the most interesting insects.
The Gerridae are
a family of insects in the order Hemiptera, commonly known as water
striders.
Water striders are also known as water skaters, water
scooters, water bugs, pond skaters, water skippers, Jesus bugs, or water skimmers.
They are found widely in lakes, creeks, urban ponds, water
features and even mud puddles.
How do water striders walk on water?
Water striders are mostly seen skipping water very rapidly
with their long legs.
They are very light weight insects whose legs are covered
with millions of microscopic hairs with tiny groves.
These groves trap air bubbles which increases buoyancy of this insect.
 |
| Photo by Tanguy Sauvin via unsplash |
How does it make the insect float?
The intermolecular attraction between like-molecules is known
as ‘cohesion’.
Water molecules attract one another very strongly through
cohesive forces. The resultant force acts downwards on the surface of water.
 |
| Image uploader: Karlhahn via WikipediaCommons |
The attractions between the water molecules in the surface
layer create a film on which water striders walk without sinking.
This effect is called ‘surface tension’.
Hence, water striders use the surface tension of water to their advantage so they can walk on water without sinking.
Also read:
What will happen if water striders get drowned?
The characteristic position of keeping the majority of the
body above the water surface is called an epipleustonic position.
When they get submerged, the tiny hairs captures air bubbles
which bring them to the surface of the water again.
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