Page 179 - Atlas Of The World's Strangest Animals

GREAT DIVING BEETLE 179

just superb swimmers, they’re equally at home beneath
Great diving beetle habitats
the pond.They can’t breathe underwater, but they don’t
need to do so.They have their own in-built ‘aqualung’!
To take in air, they hold their rear end out of the water
and draw in oxygen through a tiny opening in their
abdomen. Before they dive, they trap additional air
beneath their wing case to use as a reserve supply. Once
this is exhausted, they return to the surface and repeat
the process.

Water tigers
In their own small world, great diving beetles are big
trouble.These iridescent bugs may look harmless but they
are famously predatory.
Beetles, like many insects, undergo dramatic physical
transformations as they grow from immature larvae to
adults. In the spring, the females lay their eggs inside the
stems of water plants.These hatch into hungry larvae that
spend their lives eating and growing.They grow so quickly
that they need to shed and replace their skin regularly to
accommodate their growing bulk. It’s only once they have with their abdomen at the surface, taking in air, and their
stored up enough fuel to begin their metamorphosis that head downwards in search of food. Diving beetle larvae are
they stop eating and bury themselves in the damp mud to voracious eating machines and will consume anything they
pupate. Here, inside this protective pupal cocoon, the can catch. Favourite prey are insects, tadpoles and even
beetle develops into its adult form.As adults, they’re skilled other diving beetles, but larvae in their final stage of
hunters, able to pursue prey under water with speed and growth are big enough to catch and eat small fish.They
precision. However, their larvae are so fearsome that don’t have mandibles, so they use their jaws like syringes
they’re known as ‘water tigers’! to impale their prey. Once caught, they inject them with
With their long, thin body and large, sickle-shaped jaws, digestive enzymes, that transform their victims’ bodies into
diving beetle larvae look little like their adult counterparts. ‘soup’.This gruesome liquid meal can then be sucked up,
These curious creatures spend much of their time floating leaving an empty husk behind.

Using sensitive antennae to guide it through the dark waters, Scissor-like mandibles make fast work of the victim.This
our hunter is quickly on the trail of its next meal. stickleback is no match for such an accomplished predator.

(c) 2011 Marshall Cavendish. All Rights Reserved.