Pond skaters

When you see the elegant, long-legged pond skaters rushing around on the water surface like Olympic figure skaters, you can’t help wondering, at least for a moment, if they actually have a fear of water. They race around on the surface, never dipping their long, thin legs into the water.

If you sit beside a lake, with a good dose of patience, you will, at some point, see a pond skater sit still for long enough that every one of its long legs will push the surface tension down into small hollows – if the sun is shining, you will also see clear, round shadows of the hollows. This ability to walk on water is possible because the hairs on the bug’s legs are water-repellent. This is also what makes them able to move so fast. There is nearly no frictional resistance.

Pond skaters are predators, and the water surface tension helps them to catch their prey. When something touches the surface, vibrations are sent out in all directions, and the pond skaters can feel them. They can even sneak up to an animal lying just under the surface and attack it from above by stabbing with their beaks through the surface and into their prey.