A predatory water bug that runs on the surface film of water, related to the pond skater but with shorter legs.
Family Veliidae, suborder Heteroptera: several genera, in particular Velia
North American term water strider
 Example sentencesExamples
-  I'm used to water crickets because I have some in my basement, but not this big.
 -  Every few seconds a water cricket would go up to one of the whirligigs and touch it, causing the beetle to swim away only to be met by another cricket.
 -  I'm too terrified of grasshoppers and water crickets to get near enough to kill them.
 -  Other creatures inhabiting the surface film of bog pools are pond skaters, water measurers and water crickets.