Dapping in nature, workshop practice, and in

angling Angling is a fishing technique that uses a fish hook or "angle" (from Old English ''angol'') attached to a fishing line to tether individual fish in the mouth. The fishing line is usually manipulated via a fishing rod, although rodless techni ...

describes special examples of dipping, dabbing, or bouncing actions.

Usage

The Oxford English Dictionary defined dap in part as follows: "daps" meaning "ways, modes of action"; hence in dialect, "likeness, image". A dap can be a bounce of a ball, etc. Correspondingly, as a verb, "dap" or "dape", is apparently parallel to "dab", the final "p" expressing a lighter touch. It can mean to fish by letting the bait dip and bob lightly onto the water. Also generally to rebound. In modern practice the term "dapping" is not commonly used except in specific senses.

Technology

It can refer to the metalworking techniques known as "

sinking Sinking may refer to: * Sinking of a ship; see shipwrecking * Being submerged * ''Sinking'' (album), a 1996 studio album by The Aloof * Sinking (behavior), the act of pouring out champagne in the sink * Sinking (metalworking), a metalworking t ...

", and in

as letting the bait or lure bob lightly and repetitively down onto the water surface in the manner of certain behaviour patterns of gracile flying insects such as

crane flies Crane fly is a common name referring to any member of the insect family Tipulidae. Cylindrotominae, Limoniinae, and Pediciinae have been ranked as subfamilies of Tipulidae by most authors, though occasionally elevated to family rank. In the ...

mayflies Mayflies (also known as shadflies or fishflies in Canada and the upper Midwestern United States, as Canadian soldiers in the American Great Lakes region, and as up-winged flies in the United Kingdom) are aquatic insects belonging to the order ...

, or

caddisflies The caddisflies, or order Trichoptera, are a group of insects with aquatic larvae and terrestrial adults. There are approximately 14,500 described species, most of which can be divided into the suborders Integripalpia and Annulipalpia on the ...

and others.

Natural history

In natural history dapping is the motion that many aquatic flying insects engage in when laying their eggs. This is a mode of oviposition related to certain ecological strategies of reproduction. Among those best known for such behaviour are some

Odonata Odonata is an order of flying insects that includes the dragonflies and damselflies. Members of the group first appeared during the Triassic, though members of their total group, Odonatoptera, first appeared in Late Carboniferous. The two co ...

(

dragonflies A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the infraorder Anisoptera below the order Odonata. About 3,000 extant species of true dragonfly are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threaten ...

and

damselflies Damselflies are flying insects of the suborder Zygoptera in the order Odonata. They are similar to dragonflies, which constitute the other odonatan suborder, Anisoptera, but are smaller and have slimmer bodies. Most species fold the wings along ...

), many Trichoptera (

craneflies Crane fly is a common name referring to any member of the insect family Tipulidae. Cylindrotominae, Limoniinae, and Pediciinae have been ranked as subfamilies of Tipulidae by most authors, though occasionally elevated to family rank. In the most ...

mosquito Mosquitoes (or mosquitos) are members of a group of almost 3,600 species of small flies within the family Culicidae (from the Latin ''culex'' meaning "gnat"). The word "mosquito" (formed by ''mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish for "lit ...

es, and Ephemeroptera (

).Skaife, S. H., "African Insect Life", Pub. Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1953. This action is highly attractive to certain fishes, and anglers try to imitate the effect.

References

{{Reflist Recreational fishing Odonata Trichoptera Mayflies Tipulidae Metal forming