The
            achaete–scute
            complex contains a single gene that controls bristle development in the semi-aquatic bugs

The semi-aquatic bugs (Heteroptera, Gerromorpha) conquered water surfaces worldwide and diversified to occupy puddles, ponds, streams, lakes, mangroves and even oceans. Critical to this lifestyle is the evolution of sets of hairs that allow these insects to maintain their body weight on the water surface and protect the animals against wetting and drowning. In addition, the legs of these insects are equipped with various grooming combs that are important for cleaning and tidying the hair layers for optimal functional efficiency. Here we show that the hairs covering the legs of water striders represent innervated bristles. Genomic and transcriptomic analyses revealed that in water striders the achaete–scute complex, known to control bristle development in flies, contains only the achaete–scute homologue ( ASH ) gene owing to the loss of the gene asense. Using RNA interference, we show that ASH plays a pivotal role in the development of both bristles and grooming combs in water striders. Our data suggest that the ASH locus may have contributed to the adaptation to water surface lifestyle through shaping the hydrophobic bristles that prevent water striders from wetting and allow them to exploit water surface tension.

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Jumping on water: Surface tension-dominated jumping of water striders and robotic insects

Science ◽

10.1126/science.aab1637 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 349 (6247) ◽

pp. 517-521 ◽

Cited By ~ 138

Author(s):

J.-S. Koh ◽

E. Yang ◽

G.-P. Jung ◽

S.-P. Jung ◽

J. H. Son ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Surface Tension ◽

Water Surface ◽

Water Striders ◽

Robotic Insects

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Locomotion on the water surface: propulsive mechanisms of the fisher spider

Journal of Experimental Biology ◽

10.1242/jeb.200.19.2523 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 200 (19) ◽

pp. 2523-2538 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

R Suter ◽

O Rosenberg ◽

S Loeb ◽

H Wildman ◽

J Long

Keyword(s):

Surface Tension ◽

Water Surface ◽

Primary Source ◽

Lower Surface ◽

Power Exponent ◽

Water Tank ◽

Sources Of Resistance ◽

Bow Waves ◽

Water Striders ◽

The Relationship

Using kinematic and mechanical experiments, we have shown how fisher spiders, Dolomedes triton (Araneae, Pisauridae), can generate horizontal propulsive forces using their legs. This horizontal thrust is provided primarily by the drag of the leg and its associated dimple as both move across the water surface. Less important sources of resistance are surface tension and bow waves. The relative contributions of drag, surface tension and bow waves were examined in several different ways. In one experiment, we measured the forces acting on a leg segment as water flowed past it in non-turbulent flow; the bow wave was not present at leg relative velocities below 0.2ms-1 and thus cannot play a role in thrust production at low leg speeds. In a second experiment, we varied the surface tension by altering the concentration of ethanol from 0% to 9% in the experimental water tank. At a constant dimple depth, force varied little with changes in surface tension, a result consistent with the hypothesis that drag is the primary source of resistance. In addition, however, as surface tension decreased from 0.072 to 0.064Nm-1, the power exponent of the relationship between force and velocity (as measured by the exponent of the power function relating the two variables) increased; at lower surface tensions, down to 0.054Nm-1, the power exponent of the relationship between force and velocity decreased. These results suggest an influence of surface tension (albeit still secondary to drag) in generating horizontal resistance to leg movement. We also measured flow disturbance in the water downstream from a leg segment and confirmed that, even at velocities well below 0.2ms-1, the leg-cum-dimple transferred momentum to the water, which is a clear indication that drag is a contributor to the resistance encountered by a spider's leg. Finally, modeling the leg-cum-dimple as a circular cylinder generates values of drag that account for 7598% of the measured leg force when the dimple is 0 or 1mm deep. These results not only elucidate the primary mechanism of propulsion for D. triton and other similar-sized arthropods, such as adult water striders (Gerridae), but also suggest that the formerly enigmatic locomotion of very small water-walking organisms (e.g. first-instar water striders) can be understood in the same way.

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Water strider females use individual experience to adjust jumping behaviour to their weight within physical constraints of water surface tension

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-020-75564-x ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Minjung Baek ◽

Katherine M. Lawin ◽

Christina J. Codden ◽

Hangkyo Lim ◽

Eunjin Yang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Surface Tension ◽

Personal Experience ◽

Water Surface ◽

Dependent Manner ◽

Environmental Constraint ◽

Physical Constraints ◽

Water Striders ◽

Constraint Set ◽

Body Sizes ◽

Selection For

Abstract Different species of water striders match leg speeds to their body sizes to maximize their jump take off velocity without breaking the water surface, which might have aided evolution of leg structures optimized for exploitation of the water surface tension. It is not understood how water striders achieve this match. Can individuals modify their leg movements based on their body mass and locomotor experience? Here we tested if water striders, Gerris latiabdominis, adjust jumping behaviour based on their personal experience and how an experimentally added body weight affects this process. Females, but not males, modified their jumping behaviour in weight-dependent manner, but only when they experienced frequent jumping. They did so within the environmental constraint set by the physics of water surface tension. Females’ ability to adjust jumping may represent their adaptation to frequent increases or decreases of the weight that they support as mating bouts, during which males ride on top of females, start or end, respectively. This suggests that natural selection for optimized biomechanics combined with sexual selection for mating adaptations shapes this ability to optimally exploit water surface tension, which might have aided adaptive radiation of Gerromorpha into a diversity of semiaquatic niches.

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Immunoferritin localization of intracellular antigens in positively stained frozen sections

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s042482010008170x ◽

1978 ◽

Vol 36 (2) ◽

pp. 168-169

Author(s):

K. T. Tokuyasu

Keyword(s):

Surface Tension ◽

Water Surface ◽

Thin Layers ◽

The Other ◽

Positive Staining ◽

Frozen Sections ◽

The Past ◽

Ultrathin Frozen Sections ◽

Definition Of

During the past investigations of immunoferritin localization of intracellular antigens in ultrathin frozen sections, we found that the degree of negative staining required to delineate u1trastructural details was often too dense for the recognition of ferritin particles. The quality of positive staining of ultrathin frozen sections, on the other hand, has generally been far inferior to that attainable in conventional plastic embedded sections, particularly in the definition of membranes. As we discussed before, a main cause of this difficulty seemed to be the vulnerability of frozen sections to the damaging effects of air-water surface tension at the time of drying of the sections.Indeed, we found that the quality of positive staining is greatly improved when positively stained frozen sections are protected against the effects of surface tension by embedding them in thin layers of mechanically stable materials at the time of drying (unpublished).

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Adsorption Properties of Hydrocarbon and Fluorocarbon Surfactants Ternary Mixture at the Water-Air Interface

Molecules ◽

10.3390/molecules26144313 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 26 (14) ◽

pp. 4313

Author(s):

Bronisław Jańczuk ◽

Katarzyna Szymczyk ◽

Anna Zdziennicka

Keyword(s):

Surface Tension ◽

Water Surface ◽

Standard Free Energy ◽

Ternary Mixtures ◽

Free Energy Of Adsorption ◽

Interface Tension ◽

Air Interface ◽

Surface Excess Concentration ◽

Tail Water ◽

Triton X

Measurements were made of the surface tension of the aqueous solutions of p-(1,1,3,3-tetramethylbutyl) phenoxypoly(ethylene glycols) having 10 oxyethylene groups in the molecule (Triton X-100, TX100) and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) with Zonyl FSN-100 (FC6EO14, FC1) as well as with Zonyl FSO-100 (FC5EO10, FC2) ternary mixtures. The obtained results were compared to those provided by the Fainerman and Miller equation and to the values of the solution surface tension calculated, based on the contribution of a particular surfactant in the mixture to the reduction of water surface tension. The changes of the aqueous solution ternary surfactants mixture surface tension at the constant concentration of TX100 and CTAB mixture at which the water surface tension was reduced to 60 and 50 mN/m as a function of fluorocarbon surfactant concentration, were considered with regard to the composition of the mixed monolayer at the water-air interface. Next, this composition was applied for the calculation of the concentration of the particular surfactants in the monolayer using the Frumkin equation. On the other hand, the Gibbs surface excess concentration was determined only for the fluorocarbon surfactants. The tendency of the particular surfactants to adsorb at the water-air interface was discussed, based on the Gibbs standard free energy of adsorption which was determined using different methods. This energy was also deduced, based on the surfactant tail surface tension and tail-water interface tension.

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Pilgrim Trust Lecture, Molecular layers

Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series A - Mathematical and Physical Sciences ◽

10.1098/rspa.1939.0017 ◽

1939 ◽

Vol 170 (940) ◽

pp. 1-39 ◽

Cited By ~ 59

Keyword(s):

Surface Tension ◽

Olive Oil ◽

Water Surface ◽

Organic Molecules ◽

Critical Thickness ◽

Clean Water ◽

Oily Contamination ◽

Molecular Layers ◽

Modern Work

If fragments of camphor are placed upon a clean water surface they move about vigorously and may even be made to propel toy boats. The late Lord Rayleigh (1890 a, 1890 c) found that these movements stopped rather abruptly if the surface tension of the water was lowered by 21 dynes/cm. by oily contamination of the surface. The amount of olive oil needed for this purpose was surprisingly small, corresponding to a thickness of only 16 A (16 x 10 -8 cm.). Miss Pockels (1891) proved that any amount of olive oil less than enough to give a critical thickness of about 10 A had no effect whatever on the surface tension of water, but above this limit the surface tension decreased rapidly as the amount of oil was increased. Only 5 g. of olive oil would be needed to cover an acre of water surface with a film of this critical thickness. Miss Pockels also showed that accidental contamination of the surface, which had previously complicated nearly all observations of surface-tension phenomena, could be eliminated by using a trough filled to the brim with water, and sweeping impurities off the surface by the motion of barriers which rested on the edges of the trough. This use of movable barriers to confine films, to compress them or to remove them from the surface, laid the foundation for nearly all the modern work with films on water. The early theories of surface tension had been developed by physicists (Thomas Young 1805; Laplace, Gauss, etc.) who either treated liquids as continuous fluids between whose elements of volume forces acted, or considered only spherical molecules which exerted upon one another forces that varied as a function of the distance between molecular centres. Such theories naturally could not take into account the wealth of knowledge that had been accumulated by organic chemists regarding the structures of organic molecules.

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