water beetle id please

[thifasmom]

Went to empty caught rain water into my water butts and found this water beetle in a the pictured seed tray which had a little soil sediment and only had standing water in it about a week now.



so can anyone id the water beetle for me please. I have since transferred it to my pond. Its really funny we have wanted water beetles in our ponds a while now, how cool it showed up but in a shallow water source only a week or so old was a complete surprise



Thanks in advance for the replies

[King Edward]

Looks like Ilybius fuliginosus.

[thifasmom]

Thank you for the id info.

I cannot seem to find any informative info on the species, do you have any good links to more info like its lifecycle and food source, would love to learn more about my visitor

[King Edward]

Try searching for either information about either Dytiscidae (the family of diving beetles this belongs to) or Dytiscus marginalis (Great Diving Beetle, the best known species). The general ecology and life cycle of your beetle will be similar, although being smaller than Dytiscus it won't be eating such large prey.

[thifasmom]

Originally Posted by King Edward

Try searching for either information about either Dytiscidae (the family of diving beetles this belongs to) or Dytiscus marginalis (Great Diving Beetle, the best known species). The general ecology and life cycle of your beetle will be similar, although being smaller than Dytiscus it won't be eating such large prey.

Thanks again for the info, reading up on the species was interesting, I wonder if I would be lucky enogh for it to stick around and whether more would come that would be great

[King Edward]

You may well have other water beetle species in your ponds already. Look carefully though as many are very small, and many species prefer to crawl around on the plants rather than swim.