Water strider (Ptilomera tigrina)

Water strider (Ptilomera tigrina) is an animal species in Gerridae, a predatory insect that spends time on the surface of fast water with back and forth movements with a speed of up to 1.5 m/s to float and is very easily recognized by its habit of always walking and jumping on around water.

P. tigrina has an elongated, dark cylindrical body with several bright or silvery white parts. A pair of big eyes at the tip of the head. The stomach has joints and tapers towards the back.

A pair of antennae is very long with several joints and stick-shaped legs. The forelegs pair have three sections with two joints and the first is slightly thickened. The second and third pairs of legs are several times the length of the body.

Water strider has a very fast movement on the surface of the water to float and target prey near the surface. This species is a model in biophysical research regarding the ability to float on the surface and the ability to move forward quickly.

The buoyancy originates from the microsetae arranged in a specific direction and nanometer-sized grooves at the end of the leg and is provided with a waxy coating, but the hydrophobic effect is due more to the physical structure of the limbs than to the wax coating.

The angle of contact of the legs with water, tiny hairs and indentations cause air to become trapped and act as a float. P. tigrina presses the surface of the water using the middle leg without penetrating the surface to form a basin on the surface. Hollows to propel the body forward.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Class: Insecta
Subclass: Pterygota
Order: Hemiptera
Suborder: Heteroptera
Infraorder: Gerromorpha
Superfamily: Gerroidea
Family: Gerridae
Subfamily: Ptilomerinae
Genus: Ptilomera
Species: Ptilomera tigrina

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