• Upside-Down Aquatics

  • Mar 21 2024
  • Length: 10 mins
  • Podcast

  • Summary

  • Scuba divers pump compressed air into or out of jackets to hang neutrally buoyant in the water column. Few insects can manage the same feat and must hang onto to plants or expend energy swimming. But one insect can shunt oxygen in and out of an air bubble to "float" anywhere between the water surface and the pond floor. This same insect turns camouflage on it's head to adapt to its unusual back-stroke approach to swimming. Backswimmers do all of this and are also well equipped with a beak that can get your attention if you mishandle them.


    The episode art is modified from Didier Descouens' stunning image found here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Notonecta_maculata_MHNT.jpg

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