Beetle walking upside down under water surface filmed in Australia

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/09/beetle-that-can-walk-upside-down-under-water-surface-filmed-in-australia-in-world-first

by namu-313 • 5 years ago

199 40 5 years ago

theguardian.com

solarengineer• 5 years ago

This reminded me about "How can the Bumblebee fly even though it's not aerodynamically capable of doing so? Because no one told it about this limitation". Upon some search, for an accurate quote, I learned that this is a myth, and that Bumblebee flight does not violate the laws of physics [0]

[0] http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/08/bumblebee-fl...

enriquto5• 5 years ago

A beetle? In my aquarium I have snails walking upside down under the water surface!

dvdbloc• 5 years ago

Do they do this when you put food in the tank? Funny you mention it because I just noticed my snails doing this the other day… it sounds weird but I have engineers come to my house just to see it because they don’t believe it

MrJagil• 5 years ago

Do you have video?

krisoft2• 5 years ago

Just to clarify: are your snails walking on the water-air surface upside down? Or they are underwater but clinging to some surface other than the water-air one?

Assuming it is the first, do they breach the surface tension?

enriquto5• 5 years ago

They cling to the water surface alone. They cling, they don't "stand" on it. Their whole shell and body is inside the water, and the shell hangs from the body, which is firmly attached to the surface. If I disturb the surface they fall to the bottom.

This is a very common behaviour of pond snails. Just search "snail water surface" on google to see many pictures of it.

The beetle seems to do the opposite thing, though. It is buoyant so it floats to the surface, on which it stands and walks with its legs as it would do on the ground. The air\surface interface is very strong for small critters.

knnnuehu• 5 years ago

Snails dont have legs or limbs. And "walking" is a legged gait.

Limbless loco is a seperate story -https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_locomotion#Limbl...

Snails are pretty cool though with their mucus turning everyting around them friction free so they are badically ice skating. Have no clue what happens in water though.

dtgriscom• 5 years ago

I'd believe that they could hang upside down with their feet at the surface. I wouldn't believe that they could actually propel themselves across the surface; any movement would be due to water currents.

enriquto5• 5 years ago

They definitely propel themselves. Even if I stop the filter so that there's no water circulation, they can walk on the surface just as fast as they do on the glass (which is quite slow, but still).

Think about it: water striders propel themselves quite fast on the surface of water, from the other side. The air/water interface is a though barrier to break for small beings. Thus they can use it for support, from either side.

jeofken• 5 years ago

What a humourus coincidence that it was in Australia the upside-down walking beetle was found.

ablanton• 5 years ago

I bet his toilet flushes the other way too!!

brabel• 5 years ago

It does! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXaad0rsV38

mcbishop• 5 years ago

Upside-down beatles down under.

ComodoHacker• 5 years ago

Perhaps this species was brought there from US and struggled to adapt. Or rather adapted in its own way.

Darmody• 5 years ago

Aussies are walking upside-down, not the beetle.

crvdgc• 5 years ago

I vaguely remember there's a science fiction story about an underwater civilization where the buoyant force servers like gravity for us. Since the force points outwards, for that civilization, the planet is "up above" their head and the space is "down below".

sen• 5 years ago

That’s such a great idea for a story, especially if you start thinking about the size of the oceans, connecting to inland lakes via river networks, etc.

invincing• 5 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIs00QjiJZQ

Ftuuky• 5 years ago

This is one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time.

badjeans• 5 years ago

Down and Out by Ken Wharton?

https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2017/02/science-fi...

diggernet• 5 years ago

http://compellingsciencefiction.com/stories/downandout.html

daxfohl• 5 years ago

Surface Tension by James Blish?

trhway• 5 years ago

as it walking using surface tension it is somewhat like a space worker using magnet boots.

atombender• 5 years ago

There are other insects (and common outside Australia) that do this: Specifically, water boatmen which live underwater and have little legs that they use to push themselves around with. This includes the "lesser boatman", Corixidae and Pleidae, and the "greater boatman", Notonectidae.

In particular, Notonecta glauca (or common backswimmer) swims on its back and will walk under the water surface searching for prey: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Lateral-view-on-the-wate....

enriquto5• 5 years ago

Notonecta glauca is my favourite animal. It is a fearsome predator that can swim, walk and fly. Also, one of the few animals that can take-off from underwater!

itsdsmurrell• 5 years ago

How is this a story. I've seen this myself.

adenozine• 5 years ago

Maybe a lot of upvotes have not witnessed this themselves.

Not everything is going to be a new thing just for you. Don't you find it a little comforting that other people are now becoming aware that beetles are able to do this?

jcims• 5 years ago

Yeah but the article says this is the first time it’s been recorded.

james-bcn• 5 years ago

Agreed. I don't understand why they are making such a fuss about this. It seems trivial and expected, and is not an uncommon site (if you like looking into ponds like me).

xunn0026• 5 years ago

We noticed a month ago a few water snails crawling upside down the water surface.

tomcooks• 5 years ago

Down under, really?

Andrew_nenakhov• 5 years ago

Australia is the most appropriate place for such findings.

pvaldes2• 5 years ago

Yep, aquatic beetles are able to do this, and snails do it all the time. Is a well known fact.

anotheryou• 5 years ago

right? I think I saw it myself and I'm not around water that much

Beetle walking upside down under water surface filmed in Australia

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