A Cool Big Bug
Jeanne has shared a really cool big bug with us!
Last Thursday when the ice was thick on Jeanne’s pond she found this beauty! The ice was about 1/2 inch thick. And in fact there were two of these beauties. Jeanne estimated their size at a whooping 3/4 inch! After pounding on the ice, they got active she said.
Checking my beetle book, I found they belonged in the Dytiscidae family. Furthermore these beetles are predaceous diving beetles. Their legs move in unison unlike the Hydrophilidae family which alternate their leg movement. So my ID is a Fringed Diving Beetle (Cybister fimbriolatus)!
What a great find! And thanks so much to Jeanne for sharing her wonderful discovery.
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The more you know, the more you see and the more you see, the more you know
That’s the coolest water bug I’ve ever seen. And the prettiest. Thanks Jeanne
So glad all that light scatters – otherwise the sky would be very dark!
Thanks for the beetle id too.
You’re welcome. I hope I get to see one someday 🤞🏼😊
Fringed diving beetle looks like a perfect name!
There are a couple cool YouTube videos of diving beetles too – the lavae are pretty voracious
I will have to check them out. Thanks!
Wow what a beauty!! Great find Jeanne!
Very neat! And good looking book. So I went online to look this book up. It says east of the Mississippi River. And the Western one says west of the Continental Divide. So do we not count here in the middle of the US? Did you pick the eastern because the species do overlap our area more than the western?
When I brought the book the western one had not been published yet. 😊And also i figured there would be lots of them covered.