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Did you Know : How can a Glass Worm Swim in Water without Drowning

100 years ago, scientists saw a strange insect that was swimming comfortably in water, whereas insects usually cannot swim in water. Now after 100 years, scientists have solved this mystery.

Zoologist Philip Matthews has solved a 100-year-old mystery as to why the Chaoborus midge can swim in water. The findings of Professor Mathews at the University of British Columbia have been published in Current Biology.

The Chaoborus midge is also known as the ‘phantom midge’ due to its transparency. This larva can be seen in lakes, ponds and puddles. In 1911, Nobel laureate August Krog discovered that Chaoborus midges use an entirely different mechanism to swim. They float using two pairs of internal air-filled sacs, but its mystery was not yet been solved.

Glass Worms can swim for a long time

About this, Mathews said, “These strange insects were swimming neutrally in the water. Other insects are not able to do this. Some insects can swim for a short time during the dive, but this is the only insect that can swim for a very long time.

When Mathews placed the larva’s sacs from the tank and placed them on the microscope, they glow blue. This blue glow was due to the resin. It is a substance found in those parts of insects that are all rubber and from which elasticity is created. It is this elasticity, due to which glass worms are able to float in water

These Insects Swim in Water by changing the pH level

The weird thing about resin is that not only is it elastic but if you make it alkaline it will swell and if you make it acidic it will shrink. In this way these insects change the pH level of the air sac wall. The walls of the air sacs swell and shrink due to the reaction to resin. This balances the volume of the pouch.

 

Mathews said that it is a really strange adaptation which we did not expect. We were just trying to find out how they can swim in water without drowning.

 

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