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Diving beetle

Guide to New Zealand's freshwater invertebrates

Diving beetle ( Dytiscidae : Hyphydrus )

Adult with short 4th segment of fore tarsus
Larva with spoon-like “nose” lacking side barbs

Diagnostic features

Hyphydrus is one of the dytiscid “diving beetles” having larvae and adults that are active swimmers. The larvae have a spoon-like “nose” that has no side barbs (unlike Antiporus). The adults are oval and streamlined, up to 5mm long, with 11-segmented antennae, and the last segment of the foreleg is shorter than the other tarsal segments.

Typical habitats

Hyphydrus are most common in ponds, wetlands and slow-flowing weedy streams

Feeding

The dytiscid beetles are predators, feeding on other pond invertebrates.

Indicator value

The presence of Hyphydrus is more likely to reflect pond-like habitat conditions rather than any particular water quality conditions. This genus has not been assigned tolerance values but the dytiscids have family scores of 5 (hard bottom sites) and 0.4 (soft bottom sites).