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STORY: Researchers are revealing what happens

when a raindrop lands on an insect

using water striders and

super slow-motion video

(Daren Watson, Florida Polytechnic University)

"When striders are pushed into the water, we observe the formation of an air bubble around the body of the insect ... This air bubble prevents drowning. The water striders are also lightweight. The light weight of water striders allows for their passive transport along craters and jets.”

The study is also giving insight into

how microplastics move in water

WATSON: “Microplastics are smaller in size or can be of an equivalent size as the water striders, and would likely have a similar experience during rainfall. In some of our experiments, we replace water striders with floating particles and observed similar interactions when struck by raindrops.”