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The water spider Argyroneta aquatica lives under water, diving to various depths from time to time. At rest, it breathes air trapped within its diving bell with a hydrophilic surface. Outside their diving bell water spiders trap air on their abdomen under a layer of hydrophobic hair. Is the structure of the layer of hair trapping a volume of air on the abdomen of the water spider Argyroneta aquatica under water related to its observed diving depth (of the order of decimetre)? A positive answer to this question is given, based on the law of Laplace in combination with information obtained from SEM- photographs of the abdomen of a water spider.
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Neumann et al. (2013) studied this question.
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