Strider Thailand
Sullivan Maurer
The Mall Bangkapi will take everyone into the world of toddler bike racing during "The Mall Shopping Center Presents Strider Cup Thailand 2018" at its MCC Hall, 4th floor, from Friday to Sunday starting at 10.30am.
Hailed as the largest strider competition in Thailand, the fourth edition of the fun race is open to children aged two to six. Each will ride a no-pedal balance bike and speed down the track to the finish line amid cheering crowds.
The strider competition has five separate categories for children aged two to six and an "open class" category that features a mix of Thai and foreign children. This year will see more than 400 young racers from Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and Malaysia. They will compete on Saturday and Sunday, three categories on each day.
The highlight, however, is "The Best Strider Rider Of Thailand Championship 2018", which is open only to Thai children aged two to six. Applications can be made until Thursday. The race will be held on Friday at 11.30am and the winner will represent the country in the "Strider Asian Championship 2018" in Beijing, China, on April 29. Airline tickets for three will be provided.
To help strengthen family bonds, there are also three special categories -- Family Racing (featuring teams of a father, a mother and one child), Super Dad (open to fathers only) and Super Mom (open to mothers only). They will compete on Friday from 2.30-5.30pm.
While in Thailand, a University of Missouri-Columbia researcher found a treasure-trove of previously unknown information about aquatic insects in the country. In the process, he learned firsthand that a few of these little critters pack quite a punch when they bite.
"It's much, much worse than a bee or wasp sting," said Robert Sites, an entomologist in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources at the University of Missouri-Columbia. "It's actually not a sting; it's a bite. You'll be thinking about it a half hour or an hour. I was bitten in the pad of my little finger, and I felt intense pain all the way to my elbow for a good 30 minutes."
Working with researchers from universities in Thailand, Slovenia and the United States, Sites discovered more than 50 new insect species over a three-year period. His observations, which were funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, took place in national parks around the country and focused on insects living in mountainous streams and waterfalls.
Of the discoveries, Sites has formally described 12 of the new insects and prepared written detailed analyses of their physical characteristics, which includes the colors and sizes of their heads, wings and legs, along with numerous other distinctive features. He said six belong to the family Gerridae, commonly referred to as water striders; the remaining are members of the family Aphelocheiridae. Despite the painful bite, none are dangerous to humans, Sites said.
Each is related to insect species that are found in other parts of the world - including the United States. Sites said the new insects, which possess names like Eotrechus elongatus and Ptilomera tennaserim, serve no specific ecological purpose other than to eat and reproduce.
"From a scientific perspective, they're all cool," he said. "Unfortunately, people always want to know what good are they; what is their purpose. They're just part of the ecosystem, part of nature. They don't have a particular purpose for humanity. They're predacious insects. They feed on other insects that they can overpower in the streams. Some even eat small fish. They're pretty ferocious predators."
Sites' findings and descriptions of the insects are being published on an on-going basis. His most recently published study, "A Review of Ptilomera (Heteroptera: Gerridae) in Thailand, with Descriptions of Three New Species," appeared in the March issue of Annals of the Entomological Society of America.
There is substantial species diversity within the Gerridae family, including several species found in North America. Different water striders can vary in size, shape, and color, but all share the distinctive characteristic of walking on water.
Another critical adaptation is the ability to utilize surface tension and buoyancy. Water striders take advantage of the high surface tension of water to support their weight3. By distributing their weight across the water surface, they create small indentations, or air bubbles, that help maintain buoyancy4.
Though water striders typically reside on water surfaces, they might face challenges when encountering oil. The biomechanical factors involved in their locomotion can be affected by different surface properties, such as:
To sum up, water striders interact with their environment and predators primarily by taking advantage of the surface tension of water, and they have developed certain adaptations to protect themselves. More research is needed to understand how these fascinating creatures interact with oil spills.
Water striders, also known as Jesus bugs, are part of the Hemiptera order, which consists of true bugs. They are known for their ability to walk on water, thanks to their unique evolutionary adaptations. These adaptations include:
Their habitat includes wet environments such as vernal pools, mud puddles, and other bodies of water1. As part of their evolutionary journey, water striders developed strategies to minimize the contact area with water, allowing them to stand and move on the surface, utilizing surface tension.
The fascinating ability of water striders has sparked interest in developing materials and technologies that mimic their water-repelling properties. Some key inspirations derived from water striders include:
Hi Seth,
Thanks for sending in your wonderful image of a Water Strider, an aquatic insect that is able to disperse its weight so that it can skate across the surface of the water without breaking the tension.
Subject: Water Striders
Location: Tucquan Glen, Lancaster County PA
October 29, 2013 10:36 am
Hi Daniel!
I read your comment about wishing you had more photographs of water striders. I attached a few shots that I took several weeks ago at Tucquan Glen in Lancaster County PA.
There are two shots of an adult with prey and a group of young individuals. They were not easy to photograph due to their constant motion.
Melody McFarland
Lancaster PA
Signature: Melody McFarland
Subject: What are these little water bugs?
Location: Boulder Colorado
August 1, 2012 8:24 pm
Hey Bugman!
I saw these little creatures today here in sunny Colorado in a small pool of water. At first glance they looked like some sort of fly that would stride on the water. While watching them for awhile longer, a leaf hopper jumped into the water and suddenly every one of these water flies swarmed it and devoured the leaf hopper! What are they?!
Signature: Michael Lohr
Dear AJ,
The spareness of your words is amusing. Our readership tends to be hungry for information, and your succinct entries just leaves them salivating for more. These are Water Striders, aquatic True Bugs that skate on the surface of ponds and other bodies of water, waiting for insects to fall in which they feed upon. Though Water Striders in the family Gerridae are quite common in North America and other places around the world, this posting represents a brand new category for our site that previously experienced a noticeable dearth of Water Strider images.