Factors influencing sexual size dimorphism in temperate
water striders. American Naturalist 136:61-86.
A revision of Amemboa Esaki with notes on the phylogeny and ecological evolution of eotrechine
water striders (Insecta, Hemiptera, Gerridae).
The
water strider is an insect that skates across water at high speed.
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Water striders live on the surface of ponds, slow streams, and other quiet waters.
Water striders can't Bite humans, but small bugs unlucky enough to fall into the leggy insect's skating grounds are another matter.
Morse's class selected such study topics as salamanders, water moccasins, crayfish, frogs,
water striders, water boatman, ducks, the pond bottom, and algae/plankton.
Fitness consequences of alternative life histories in
water striders, Aquarius remigis (Heteroptera: Gerridae).
Fitness consequences of food-based territoriality in
water striders, Gerris remigis.
I become abstracted while my students create a "Field Guide to What Water Does." When I check in, I find one man who has discovered that
water striders only dimple the surface of the creek without breaking its tension, and create four sets of round ripples each time they move.
These examples comprise studies in water-living insects, such as amphipods and
water striders, and also in land insects, as investigated in a recent study in Australian plague locusts that are at a higher risk of being eaten as mating pairs compared to single animals.
In a comparison with the animal world, Wilson says people in a community can behave more like
water striders he observed on a pond, careening around in pursuit of their own goals, or more like wasps, "working together, without necessarily knowing it, for the common good."
Water striders (Heteroptera: Gerridae) are excellent study organisms to address these questions because they can be reared individually in the laboratory, measurements of the cuticles cast during molting provide an accurate record of growth, and each molt is a distinct developmental event.
