June 17th, 2011

Check this out!  These are predaceous diving beetle larvae.  The small one is the size that we usually find in the pond at Laurel Creek, but the big one is a whopper.  These are fearsome predators in the pond.  The mandibles inject digestive juices into their prey, and then they suck their meal back up.  While the class had these larvae in a bucket, the small one feasted on a tadpole that was larger than it was, and the large one killed a stickleback fish.  

Here’s a video of one hunting down a tadpole:  

http://www.arkive.org/great-diving-beetle/dytiscus-marginalis/video-08b.html