Discovery reports on a Binghampton University study that suggests female water striders prefer less aggressive males, and in fact produce more eggs when mating with them. Lovable dork and guest columnist Cynthia Mills writes:

Evidently, some male water striders like to come on a bit strong to the females. In my day they would have been sidling up with line like, 'Hey baby, what's your sign?' I guess now they would be saying 'Hey baby, what's on your playlist?' Whatever line they are using, they are obnoxious, and as such, clearly they would make lousy mates. The water strider females agree. Unfortunately, if the pond is small, they can't get away and it ends up looking like these creeps are successful-they get the girls, in other words, they make baby water striders. But if the pond is big enough and the girls can get away, they ditch these bozos and find better breeding stock. They end up hanging out with the more 'gentlemanly' water striders; that is, the ones that don't hassle them, that hang back and look dignified, I guess. In the end, the entire population did better-more baby water striders were produced-if the females could pick their mates carefully. The females produced three times more eggs if they could get away from the jerks.

They make you work, though. Even the gentlemanly male water striders have to perform an elaborate ritual in order to get females to give up that nappy water-strider dugout. If you like to watch, you can do so here.

Lastly, because watching water striders skim and skate and fuck across the water is so amazing and might lead inquiring minds to ponder the nature of surface tension, please also enjoy this Discovery clip about what actually happens when a drop of water hits a pool of water. Super-slow-motion video reveals that it bounces, pops like a balloon, and bounces again, getting smaller and smaller until it disappears. It is even more amazing, perhaps, than water striders.