Great Diving Beetle

[whis4ey]

A ferocious predator, known to simply attach itself onto the side of a fish and eat
Ah well .... such is pondlife

[AJC]

My little pond has had a few of these over the years, found one about 30mm or so long one time! often used to see one with a tadfpole in its jaws.

good pic sam.

[Ponddipperdave]

What a shock when I first netted one of these, They're massive.
I Haven't had one in my pond for a couple of years but being a wildlife pond they would be most welcome.
Their Nymphs are just as voracious and will attack things much bigger than themselves.
They have two pincers at the front with which they grab their prey. They then inject a poison which turns the victims insides into slush which then gets sucked out ! I found an adult newt carcass that had gone this way.
Has anyone got a Silver Water Beetle ? These are even larger but rarer and of course vegetarian.
Dave

[dampflippers]

I have been doing some newt surveys this year, and on a couple of occasions there was a dead newt or stickleback when great diving beetles were alos in the trap.

[alison]

I bet that made you feel bad for the eaten prey. Nowhere to escape. Nice meal for the diving beetle though.
It reminded me of something that happened last week. We were going to do a moth count and during the day before we started we found a small moth on the window in the kitchen. The children were quite excited as we got it into the jam jar to release it back into the garden . As the jar was opened the moth fluttered out onto the kitchen floor to be immediately caught by a large spider that came from nowhere and just grabbed it and ate it. The children were so upset. We had to explain that it is nature and the spider has to eat also, but we did feel a bit cruel as it was our fault the moth was in the jar in the first place.