With many thanks to George and Irene McKirdle from Shearington who handed this HUGE beetle to Alison Robertson in Glencaple for hopeful identification.

As you can see from the image, it was quite a (beautiful) beast! Found in their cellar, George and Irene realised that it was still alive – but only just. Unfortunately the beetle didn’t survive the night, but it will still be a good record for the area.

Suspected to be a male Great Diving Beetle, Dytiscus marginalis, one of the UK’s largest beetles – most often found in fresh water (ponds or slow running streams), Nature Spot tells us that:

“They are able to leave the water and fly off to colonise new ponds, sometimes landing in error on shiny car roofs or cold-frames in mistake for a water surface”.

Alison sent the info and photos to beetle experts at SWSEIC, the SW Scotland Environmental Information Centre, for confirmation …and it is indeed Dytiscus marginalis, a Great Diving Beetle!

 

Alison explained that,”It’s not particularly unusual but a very nice record nonetheless: it’s not seen often because it lives in ponds. I’ve put the record (with photo) on iRecord, a website where you can submit odd sightings of things which then get picked up by experts in their various fields.  So there it is, recorded for posterity and if anyone produces a map of Great Diving Beetle distribution in Scotland it’ll be there.”

Keep your eyes peeled for interesting natural finds in the locality – you never know what you might uncover!