PREDACEOUS DIVING BEETLE

also called diving beetle, or true water beetle any member of the cosmopolitan insect family Dytiscidae (order Coleoptera), containing more than 4,000 species. Diving beetles are oval and flat and range in length from 1.5 millimetres to more than 35 millimetres (0.06 to more than 1.4 inches). They are well adapted to an aquatic environment: the hind pair of legs is long, flattened, and fringed to provide surface area that aids in flotation, and the spiracles (openings through which the beetle breathes) are on the abdomen just under the tips of the wing covers (elytra). When in a resting position-below the water surface on an incline with the head down-the beetle raises the tips of the elytra and breathes through the spiracles. When ready to dive, it stores a supply of air under its wings for breathing while under water. Diving beetles are so streamlined that the males of some species have sucker-like cups on the first pair of legs so that they can hold on to the smooth surface of the female during mating. Predaceous diving beetles are carnivorous, preying on insects and other aquatic organisms, including fish larger than they. The female deposits eggs in the water or on aquatic vegetation; the larvae, known as water tigers because of their voracious appetite, are long and slender and have sickle-shaped jaws. Through canals in its jaws the larva pumps digestive juices into its prey and sucks out the digested animal tissues. The larva, like the adult, breathes through spiracles on its abdomen and hangs suspended from the water surface film. In some species filamentous abdominal appendages function as gills, and the larva does not have to surface in order to breathe. Diving beetle larvae pupate in moist ground. Two important worldwide genera (Dytiscus and Cybister), more than 35 mm (1.4 inches) long, are raised and eaten in the Orient. The eyeless genus Siettitra lives in deep wells. Diving beetles are not generally considered beneficial because they eat fish and compete with them for food and space without providing them with a major food source.