The lake pondskater is a water strider that skates across the surface of ponds and slow rivers on long, water-repellent legs. It lives across Eurasia and has not been recorded in the United States, where its close relative the common water strider is the one you'll see on ponds and streams.
Appearance
- Appearance
- About 7/16–5/8 in (11–16 mm) long, dark brown, with very long middle and hind legs and short front legs. It has a yellow line along each side of the thorax and large spines at the tip of the abdomen. Some adults have full-length wings and others short wings.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Ponds
- Lakes
- Slow streams
- Range
- Widespread in the low and middle latitudes of Eurasia, from western Europe to East Asia, including Korea and Japan. It is not native to North America.
Behavior
- Diet
- Feeds on insects, larvae, and spiders that fall onto the water. It grabs prey with its front legs and pierces it with its beak-like mouthparts.
- Overwintering
- Spends the winter as an adult.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
Culture and stories
- Culture and stories
- In 2015, researchers at Seoul National University and Harvard filmed this species jumping off the water and built a tiny insect robot that can leap from the water surface the same way.
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