This water strider spreads out its legs so that it can ‘float’ on the surface of the water.
A water strider is a common aquatic bug of the Rocky Mountains and many parts of the world. These 7 water strider facts will help you understand this tiny animal.
I remember seeing these cool water bugs on hikes I’d taken back in college, but I had no idea what they were. They were so mesmerizing as they seemed to skate across the surface of water. I hadn’t thought of them until I started taking my kids hiking. We spent a lot of time near water, hanging out, observing things, and playing with rocks. We spent a lot of time watching these insects. They are so neat and I wanted to share some fun facts about them since you will likely see them.
7 Water Strider Facts
These aquatic insects live on calm water of ponds, lakes, or even some rivers or streams.
They skate over the surface of water. Yes, they don’t float like ducks or leaves. They use surface tension to stay on top of water and move. In order to do this they spread their legs far apart and by distributing their weight they are able to stay on top of the water. They mainly use four of their legs to move or skate on the water – the two back pairs of legs. The front two serve a different purpose.
These insects are carnivores, eating other insects or insect larvae. They use their two front legs to detect ripples or movements on the water that could be coming from insects. Then they quickly skate over to where the movement was detected and use their two front legs to grab the prey. They then pierce the prey’s body and sucks out it juices! Yes, water striders don’t bite and chew up the prey, like all true bugs they simply suck out the juices.
A water strider may be a carnivore, but it won’t bite people.
Water striders are true bugs. True bugs are one of the orders within the broad grouping of insects (the Class). Remember Kings Play Chess On Funny Green Squares to help with the classification of life. All insects are types of animals, and true bugs are a type of insect.
Water striders are very common.
They can move incredibly fast across the surface of water. This is crucial for their survival for two reasons. First, they need to be fast to catch prey. Secondly, they need to be fast in order to avoid fish that would gladly eat them.
One of their food sources is mosquito larvae. I’ve written about how mosquitoes may be annoying, but they do serve as a source of food for other animals, including water striders.