WATER STRIDERS
Water striders, sometimes called water skaters, are interesting bugs, which you have surely observed on some pool or slow-moving stream. They glide over the surface of the pool as easily as you walk on land,
and considerably faster. They are rather large bugs, and their long, thin legs spread over the water and help them stay on top of it.
You may also see spiders walking on the water, but a water strider has six legs, so you know that he is an insect and not a spider.
A water strider's body is very long and narrow, and you can see his segmented abdomen very clearly. His round eyes seem to be popping out of the sides of his small, narrow head. When you look on the under side of his head, you can see that his mouth-parts form a tube.
This water bug uses his hind and middle pairs of legs for gliding, jumping, and swimming. He can jump several inches into the air from the surface of the water. His front legs are carried forward at each side of his head. They are folded under and look much shorter than they are. If you are patient, you may see a water strider pounce upon a bit of food and hold it with his front legs while he is eating. Like other bugs, a
water strider pierces his food and sucks the juices through his beak.
Sometimes he attacks a backswimmer or other water bug; sometimes he is a scavenger and feeds upon the bodies of animals already dead.
Young water striders look much like adults, except that they have very short wings, and, of course, their bodies are smaller. You will also find short-winged adults. Some water striders do not have wings, even when they are fully grown. Others fold their rather long wings flat on their backs.
THE WATER SCORPION
Water scorpions look like brown twigs walking along the leaves of plants. When they are still, it is hard to tell these water bugs from dead leaves or plant stems.
One water scorpion, sometimes called a walking stick, with its tiny head and long, slender legs, may remind you of a water strider, but a water strider does not have
the long air-tube tail which you will see on this bug. Sometimes a water scorpion seems to be standing on his head, clinging to a plant beneath the water, with the two breathing tubes which form his tail extended to the surface for air.
This water bug carries his first pair of legs in front of his head, like strange, flattened antennae. He uses these forelegs to catch and hold his victims. The blood or body fluids of other water animals serve him as food.
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