Natural Connections: A trend of predaceous diving beetles

As a naturalist, I get the strangest emails. I try not to check them at home, but when my phone buzzed and the subject said “June bug on steroids?” it was worth interrupting my evening chores. “The past couple nights I’ve heard something hit our window at night when we have lights on and each time I’ve thought ‘that sounded like a June bug… but BIGGER.’” wrote a Museum member.

I opened the video, and sure enough, there was a black, oval-shaped beetle about an inch and a half long walking along the boards of a deck. The message continued, “I’ve never seen a beetle so big here in the Northwoods. Hopefully it’s not a sign that all of the bugs will be mega sized this year after such a weird winter.” Chuckling, I wrote her back, “Looks like a predaceous diving beetle! That’s their normal size!” The next day, I was scrolling through a Facebook group of regional nature observations, when a video of a diving beetle squirming in a bucket popped up with the caption “Biggest June bug ever!!!” Since June bugs are actually beetles, too, I applauded them for getting close.