Sparsholt Schools' Centre for Environmental Education
 

Pond Animal Information 

 

Great Diving Beetle
Scientific Name: Dytiscus marginalis
Group: Insecta (Coleoptera)
Size: 30 - 35 mm
Common in ponds that are rich in vegetation. These are ferocious predators with strong biting jaws for catching their prey. They breathe by coming to the surface to collect a bubble of air over their hairy bodies and under their wings.  
 
 
Food chain
Position in food chain:
Secondary consumer (carnivore)
They eat: tadpoles, snails smaller insects (even each other!) 
They are eaten by:
water mites and larger animals such as fish 		   

Breathing

Feeding 

 

 

Life cycle
The female lays the eggs inside the stems of underwater plants. The eggs hatch into beetle larva  which are large, ferocious carnivores.  

The larva pupate and emerge as an adult in the summer months. 

The adults can live for several years.

Back to Pond life