It's the moment the world has been waiting for. Dr Ebbe Nielsen, reports that the bug, a small water strider, is harmless to computers. Found at altitude in mountain streams of southeast Queensland and northeast NSW, this true bug is presently known to exist at only eight localities in that region. At about two millimetres in length, it lives on the surface of the water in quiet areas of freshwater streams. The reason I asked Dr Andersen, who is the world authority on this group of insects, and Mr Weir to work on water striders is so we can use them to monitor the quality of freshwater all over Australia.
Insects are very fine instruments for indicating the biological health of their environment.
Bugs from the Veliidae family are often found in tropical and subtropical regions of the world and occur on many oceanic islands. Relatives are the only insects to inhabit the surface of the open oceans. From a starting point of one genus, Microvelia, Mr Weir and Dr Andersen have now described eight related genera in Australia. So far we have scientifically described fewer than a third of the insect species on this continent. The work of exploring Australia scientifically is still in its early stages.