Water striders are tiny bugs which have a shocking means to outlive impacts with raindrops dozens of occasions heavier than they’re. Sluggish-motion movies of them getting smashed by water have revealed the methods they use to keep away from getting crushed – together with how they’ll shoot into the air aboard a water jet and somersault off earlier than touchdown.

As their identify suggests, water striders will be discovered strolling throughout the surfaces of ponds, lakes and rivers world wide. They’ve lengthy legs coated in microscopic hairs that lure air, serving to the bugs to drift on water.

“I noticed them skating across the water sooner or later, and I believed, ‘what do they do when it rains?’” says Andrew Dickerson on the College of Tennessee. Raindrops can weigh greater than 40 occasions as a lot as grownup water striders. “How do they survive? Are they submerged, or are they ejected into the air?” he added.

To analyze, Dickerson and his colleagues put some water striders right into a glass aquarium crammed with water, bombarded them with droplets and recorded the critters’ reactions with slow-motion movies.

The researchers observed that, when a raindrop collided with an insect on the water’s floor, the bug initially remained unscathed, because of its low density. Nonetheless, it did get dragged down into the ensuing influence crater. The collapse of the crater then shot a jet of water again up above the floor – and the insect went with it.

In a handful of circumstances, the crew witnessed water striders leaping away from the water jet earlier than it fell again to the floor. “It was fairly neat; we noticed some backflip off that jet,” says Dickerson.

But when the water striders couldn’t escape the jet of water, they might get sucked again down once more. Fortunately, their furry, water-repelling legs allowed them to drift and swim again to the floor.

“It’s the equal of us getting hit by a automotive, and so they survive it – and endure this fairly acrobatic journey within the course of, in some circumstances,” says Dickerson.