Friday, April 2, 2010

Water Glider Bug

I don't know if that's it's official name (and since I am on dial up internet I don't think I'll dare to find out)....
So what info can ya'll find out on this bug? I have always loved the way they skim across the surface of the water like a weightless entity. Today I would like to be a water skimmer, even just for 10 minutes... i am pretty sure it would change my life.

XoXOoo

4 comments:

Kittie Howard said...

Am totally clueless save that buggie looks happy being a bug and that's nice, actually. Hey, before I forget, Happy Easter to you and yours!

knsummers said...

we always called them water striders
wikipedia tells me:
The family Gerridae contains insects commonly known as water striders, water bugs, magic bugs, pond skaters, skaters, skimmers, water scooters, water skaters, water skeeters, water skimmers, water skippers or Jesus bugs. There are around 500 known species, commonly placed in around 60 genera ...
Water striders can stand effortlessly on water due to their non-wetting legs.

Writing in Nature, biophysicists Xuefeng Cao and Lei Jiang demonstrated that the water resistance of the legs is due to the "special hierarchical structure of the legs, which are covered by large numbers of oriented tiny hairs (microsetae) with fine nanogrooves". They go on to demonstrate that the water resistance is due more to this physical structure than the chemical properties of the wax coating of the legs. Thats cool

Miss Voodoo said...

Kittie!
Thanks so much! Hope you enjoy the holiday weekend too - my mom being the hardcore catholic she is, told me all about them unveiling Jesus in church yesterday and sent me really beautiful flowers!

KNsummers -
Yay! ya rock. I like how it has a ton of names, but the walk on water Jesus Bug name or Water Skeeter might be my most favorite... at least when i ever have to say it outloud.
That is way awesome about their legs, it's why most inventions really should be looking into bio-mimicry these days. Nature has already solved so many of our problems.

Alyssa said...

it's a Water Bug aka Water Spider