How many species of water striders are there

Water strider females typically lay eggs on aquatic vegetation or rocks. Upon hatching, striders undergo incomplete metamorphosis. During the immature nymph stages five instar stages , they look like small adults. They are particularly effective predators of mosquito larvae.

I approve of this. As do I. However, if there are too many water striders around and they run out of mosquito larvae, they eat each other. Even people who are normally creeped out by insects tend to enjoy water striders. Everything about them seems pretty benign. Except for their mating habits. The male water striders have coevolved a strategy so that the female is more likely to submit to advances. Since the female is beneath the male, and nearer the water, she will be the one first gobbled up by a fish or other hungry creature.

For water striders, love is a battlefield. Many strider species have wings of varying lengths, depending on habitat conditions. Species frequenting calm waters typically have large wings. Species that live in swift waters have short ones, as long wings could be easily damaged. Called polymorphism, it is the mechanism that enables a parent to have one brood of young without wings, while the next brood has them.

This allows water striders to be very adaptable to changing water and habitat conditions. For instance, if the strider is living in small wetland and temperatures are rising, the habitat is likely to disappear. Thus a mechanism is triggered so the next generation of water striders has wings, allowing them to fly away from their drying wetland. This capability allows striders to colonize all sorts of aquatic habitats, including tiny ponds and even mud puddles.

Year after year, adult water striders arrive within a day or even minutes after the pond is filled. When my son and I checked out the local canal, it was just beginning to fill, yet water striders were already occupying every pool of water. How can they find these new habitats? Waldbauer points to research that suggests aquatic insects are attracted to any reflecting surface.

If a strider sees such a surface, it checks it out. The sheer numbers of ants, termites, bees and other species is staggering. But this is true only on land and in freshwater habitats.

By sea, insects are often conspicuously absent. Of those , species, only a few hundred are found in the ocean. Some water strider species are among them. These species lack wings and can be found far out to sea. There is some disagreement as to their habits and diet, but many sources suggest they feed on fluids secreted by dead floating animals. Please note that all comments are moderated and may take some time to appear. Thanks for this great info on one of my favorite insects!

Going to see if I can relocate some to an artificial pond in my backyard. None have colonized it on their own. I have always wanted to know more about these lovely creatures! The shadows they cast are amazing. And a groove something that could catch air? Love them. John: You might not have to relocate them. We have a garden pond half a mile from the nearest water, and they found it as did green frogs and the odd bullfrog.

Great article…. Thank you! Thank you for this article — Water Striders — Life one never thinks about — at least not until a fun article like this. I will check out the pond in the backyard to see what I can find. I have a good friend who likes to sit in streams. He has been bitten so often that he started wearing long socks to avoid being bitten.

He said that the bite results in skin swelling like a big mosquito bite. Water striders — also known as pond skaters, water skippers, Jesus bugs, or water skeeters — belong to the family Gerridae.

There are over 1, species in this family, many of which are found in freshwater and behave similarly to water striders in that they move atop the water. The Gerridae family is incredibly diverse , including also water scorpions and stink bugs, therefore encompassing both terrestrial and aquatic species.

One genus in the family, the Halobates , contains over 40 species that are found in marine habitats, including the open ocean. However, water striders are true insects, and not arachnids, most notably possessing six rather than eight legs. The front two legs are found near the mouth, and are short, meant for holding prey in place. Their main body, known as the thorax, is thin and oblong, averaging between 1. Each leg is covered in thousands of microscopic hairs that are in turn covered by even tinier grooves.

These cool, uniquely adapted hydrophobic legs allow the water strider to move at a pace of over a meter per second. To put this in perspective, a human would have to swim over miles per hour, or 9 miles per second.

Water striders within the genus Gerris can be found in just about any slow-moving freshwater habitat, be that a pond, lake, swimming pool, or even mud puddles. Common Name Synonyms. Habitat and Conservation These fascinating, harmless insects can be found in nearly any aquatic habitat, including ponds, lakes, swamps, ditches, creeks, streams, and rivers.

Food Like other true bugs, water striders have mouthparts modified into a hollow straw, with which they pierce and suck nutrients from their food. Life Cycle Life Cycle. Human Connections Usually, when we think of the psychological effect nature has on us, we focus on strikingly beautiful or noble qualities. Water striders capture prey insects and suck their juices.

Often, they eat land insects that have accidentally fallen into the water. Right to Use. Similar Species. Spotted Fishing Spider. Water Scorpions. Aquatic Spiders. Whirligig Beetles.