The Jesus Bugs

Water strider (Gerris remigis)

So down to the Hersey Creek to take a break from sweaty work.  The mosquitoes tried to carry me away, but I couldn't take my eyes off the concentric circles appearing in the creek made by the water striders scooting along in every direction. It makes me think of ice skating or sliding on a newly waxed floor in cotton socks.  They were mesmerizing!

I thought our family had invented the name "Jesus bugs" because these guys amazingly can walk on water, but references also use that common name for the water strider.  Look carefully in the center of the ripples and you will see the one I had hoped to capture in the picture.  Now look slightly below and to the right and you will see a second one who must have been still enough not to cause ripples at that moment.

According to Wikipedia, they can walk on water because of thousands of microhairs per millimeter on their legs which are water repelling.  They even have them on their body so that if they get dunked the air that gets trapped in the microhairs will cause them to pop back up to the surface. They steer with their hind legs and row with their middle legs. It works so well that they can move easily at 1 meter (approx. 39 inches) per second! I wonder if they can knit a sweater with their front legs or twiddle their thumbs while scooting along at that speed?  Want to know more:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerridae