![]() ![]() ![]() In one of these pools, he spotted a black object smaller than a pinky nail. John Gould, a behavioral biologist at the University of Newcastle in Callaghan, Australia, hadn’t set out to look for beetles one night in the country’s Watagan Mountains, searching instead for tadpoles in ephemeral pools. It’s the first detailed documentation of a beetle moving in this manner, which is known only in precious few animal groups. But new research reveals an unusual way to tread along this boundary: from the underside.Ī water-dwelling beetle can scuttle upside-down along the underside of the water’s surface, as if the water were a solid pane of glass, researchers report June 28 in Ethology. Surface tension allows for insects like water striders to skate along the top of still waters, for example. ![]() Being quite small, insects can have a very different relationship with the water-air interface than larger animals do. ![]()
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