A Year In The Life - Day 48, July 8, 2014

Today's subject:  A Great Diving Beetle (Dytiscus marginalis) nymph we found in the slough while Sarah was knocking the pike dead with her new 'Pink Panther" fly.  We found another this spring while frog hunting, and both of them were true to their reputation.  In a word: Ferocious.  They will aggressively attack anything that comes near them, rearing up like a scorpion and stabbing down with a pair of jaws as a scorpion might do with its tail barb.  They use the pincers like hypodermic needles when feeding to inject a digestive concoction of enzymes that dissolves the unfortunate organism's tissue into a drinkable soup.  Pleasant thought when handling one for a pic or two.  :)  Anyways, here's a pair of close ups of the mouthparts - first the top view, and then from the underside - and then a shot of the whole beast, roughly all three inches of him.  The macro was used for all three so the last is a bit blurry, of course...