Why mosquito eggs float (opens in new tab)

This hand-coloured scanning electron micrograph was the favourite of the jury in the section "Best Scientific Image". The image shows the surface of a mosquito egg (from Culex pipiens), which . The vitally important structures avoid immersion and enable the egg to float and aggregate with neighbouring eggs. The Reposted from 2013 because I had my first encounter with mosquitoes this week in the woods behind our house.