These little insects are relatives
of the pond skaters or water striders that are able to walk on the surface of
the water without breaking through the “skin.” But whereas the pond skaters are
basically landlubbers who never stray far from terra firma, your average sea
skater is, by comparison, a hairy-chested sailorman who lives in the open
ocean, filling his ample belly with plankton.
I have seen these little fellows on
a dead-calm day in midocean, with their feet spread out in a roundel of pools
as they press down on the surface tension, and I have wondered how on earth
they manage to survive out there when the wind starts to blow and the water
becomes rough. Very few insects look more fragile than sea skaters, but Nature
has obviously equipped them with the means to survive even the largest plunging
breaker.
In fact, I read recently that Miriam
Goldstein, of the University of California in San Diego, has been studying sea
skaters, and she says that they even have a little “life jacket” — a bunch of
hairs on their body that trap a bubble of air, so that if they get sunk by a
wave, they pop right back up. “They’re amazing,” she says.
I must agree with her. I can’t
imagine what kind of social life they live out there, skating away over the
world’s oceans, probably hoping to meet up with another interesting sea skater
of the opposite sex someplace, sometime. But I expect their little lives are
enlivened by the fact that, at any moment, they’re likely to run into one of
their mortal enemies, a spider disguised as a little yacht under a silk cloud
of spinnaker, and ever ready to gobble them up.
Today’s
Thought
Nature
is a rag merchant who works up every shred and ort and end into new creations;
like a good chemist whom I found, the other day, in his laboratory, converting
his old shirts into pure white sugar.
— Emerson, Conduct of Life: Considerations by the Way
Tailpiece
“Filthy
pictures, sir?”
“Good
grief, no.”“Filthy pictures, sir?”
“No, no, go away!”
“Filthy pictures, sir?”
“Leave me alone, you’re far too young. Shoo!”
“Filthy pictures, sir?”
“Oh, for Pete’s sake . . . okay, okay . . . how many d’you want?”
(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday,
Friday for a new Mainly about Boats column.)
http://www.everythingabout.net/articles/biology/animals/arthropods/insects/bugs/water_strider/water_strider.jpg
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