ArticleScientific reports2020
Superhydrophobicity and size reduction enabled Halobates (Insecta: Heteroptera, Gerridae) to colonize the open ocean.
Article in Scientific reports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 40 citations in OpenAlex.
- Microbial diversity and functional potential of the Halobates melleus (Heteroptera: Gerridae) microbiome from the Red Sea coastline.Environmental microbiome · 2025Article
- Physics of sliding on water explains morphological and behavioural allometry across a wide range of body sizes in water striders (Gerridae).Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Water striders are impervious to raindrop collision forces and submerged by collapsing craters.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Locomotory Behavior of Water Striders with Amputated Legs.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Two different jumping mechanisms of water striders are determined by body size.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Effects of superhydrophobic sand mulching on evapotranspiration and phenotypic responses in tomato (Plant-environment interactions (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2022Article
- Why did only one genus of insects, Halobates, take to the high seas?PLoS biology · 2022Article
- On the formation of hydrogen peroxide in water microdroplets.Chemical science · 2022Article
- Nature-inspired wax-coated jute bags for reducing post-harvest storage losses.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- How drain flies manage to almost never get washed away.Scientific reports · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Despite the remarkable evolutionary success of insects at colonizing every conceivable terrestrial and aquatic habitat, only five Halobates (Heteroptera: Gerridae) species (~0.0001% of all known insect species) have succeeded at colonizing the open ocean - the largest biome on Earth. This remarkable evolutionary achievement likely required unique adaptations for them to survive and thrive in the challenging oceanic environment. For the first time, we explore the morphology and behavior of an open-ocean Halobates germanus and a related coastal species H. hayanus to understand mechanisms of these adaptations. We provide direct experimental evidence based on high-speed videos which reveal that Halobates exploit their specialized and self-groomed body hair to achieve extreme water repellence, which facilitates rapid skating and plastron respiration under water. Moreover, the grooming behavior and presence of cuticular wax aids in the maintenance of superhydrophobicity. Further, reductions of their body mass and size enable them to achieve impressive accelerations (~400 ms
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.