Summary
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1.
Rowing is defined as simultaneous movement of the mesothoracic legs, walking as nonsimultaneous movement of these legs.
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2.
An increase in surface tension does not effect a gait change from rowing to walking but a sloping substrate does.
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3.
The proportion of movements that are walking steps increases as the slope of the substrate increases.
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4.
Gerrid walking is very awkward. Most measurements indicate that a leg may be picked up and put down without regard for the activities of other legs. There is, however, a greater than random chance that legs may protract in a modified tripod succession like that of Wilson's (1966) gaits c and d. In contrast, rowing is very well coordinated.
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5.
The very unstable situations which arise during walking indicate that proprioceptive input may play very little role in walking coordination.
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6.
Well developed rowing coordination seems to have evolved at the expense of well coordinated walking.
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I wish to thank G. Wyse for advice and criticism throughout this work and R. Olivo for reading an earlier draft of this manuscript. This work was supported in part by National Institute's of Health grant number N S 08869 awarded to G. Wyse.
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Bowdan, E. Walking and rowing in the water strider,Gerris remigis . J. Comp. Physiol. 123, 43–49 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00657342
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00657342