Beetle Found Walking Upside Down, Underneath the Water Surface

[kellyhound]

This 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 told.

It’s the first detailed documentation of a beetle moving in this manner, which is known only in precious few animal groups.

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. In one of these pools, he spotted a black object smaller than a pinky nail.

“At first, I just assumed it must have been a bug that had fallen into the water and was swimming across the surface,” he recounts, “but then realized the bug was upside-down and below the water’s surface.”

The beetle — later identified as a water scavenger beetle (Hydrophilidae) — walked under the water’s surface just as it would on a flat, solid surface, periodically resting and changing direction.

Searching the scientific literature, researchers found that some snails could slide along the underside of the water’s surface on a layer of mucus, but little documentation of beetles walking this way existed — just passing mentions in decades-old papers.

[Geemonster]

nature is amazing

[William May]

These are also known as "Mafia Beetles"
Because you have to give them concrete shoes to kill them.

[Vixənn]

that's so fucking cool!
more insects, please!