Figure - PMC

Skip to main content

An official website of the United States government

Here's how you know

Here's how you know

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

View full-text article in PMC

. 2020 May 8;10:7785. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-64563-7

Search in PMC
Search in PubMed
View in NLM Catalog
Add to search

© The Author(s) 2020

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

PMC Copyright notice

Summary of key adaptations of Halobates for oceanic life. Halobates germanus is one of only five insect species that managed to live on the perilous open ocean. Colonization of this habitat requires sophisticated and specific adaptations for a more efficient structural and functional body design that translates into behaviors and dynamics necessary to cope with various physical and ecological environmental threats. Oceanic Halobates evolved to have smaller and lighter water-repellent bodies, sets of specialized legs that can exploit the surface tension to support their weight and facilitate extraordinary environmental awareness, which are essential for versatile responses that allow them to survive in an environment characterized by turbulence, submersion and predation. (This figure was created by Xavier Pita, Senior Scientific Illustrator, KAUST).