Lesser silver water beetle
The lesser silver water beetle lives in ponds and ditches. Funny thing: it is not silver at all, it is black. It carries a bubble of air under its body, and that bubble shines like silver under water.
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Fun facts
It traps air with the hairs on its belly, so it can breathe under water like a diver with a tank.
In the United Kingdom it lives in only three areas and is protected by law because it is endangered.
It likes pools with a floating raft of thick plants in the middle.
Cows help it: when they trample the edges of the pools, the beetle finds better places to breed.
Most asked questions about Lesser silver water beetle
?Why is it called a silver water beetle?
Because the bubble of air under its body shines like silver when it is under water.
?How big is the lesser silver water beetle?
It is about 15 millimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Hydrochara caraboides
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Hydrophilidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Hydrophilidae
- Lives on
- Europe
Where the facts come from
- Lesser silver water beetle (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Francisco Welter-Schultes. CC0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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