Editor's Summary

11 May 2006

Bubble rap

Backswimmers, diving insects common the world over, are the only insects to inhabit mid-water environments as adults and the only ones to possess haemoglobin throughout their life cycle. No coincidence, surely, and now experiments in the Australian backswimmer confirm a role for haemoglobin in buoyancy control. The insects achieve long periods of neutral buoyancy by using stored oxygen to stabilize the volume of the air bubble that they collect at the surface before a dive.

Brief Communications: Diving insects boost their buoyancy bubbles

Underwater backswimmers use their haemoglobin to help them stay stationary while waiting for prey.

Philip G. D. Matthews and Roger S. Seymour

doi:10.1038/441171a

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