This little chap is about half a centimetre long; up close it's rather beautiful
Here’s a rubbish picture of the first water beetle to arrive in the new pond – 4 days after filling.
This ia a water scavenger beetle, one of the big group of scavenger beetles (around 150 species in ponds in Britain) that you wouldn’t really guess were water beetles unless you saw them in the water.
They’re not at all streamlined, unlike diving beetles.
But, like many diving beetles, lots of scavenger beetles also fly easily from pond to pond. This one, which is either Helophorus grandis or Helophorus aequalis (Hel-off-or-us gran-dis), but no English name yet for the species – come on beetle people), this one probably comes unseen to many new garden ponds.
They like very shallow water, are often found amongst grasses at the edge and they’re are also attracted to shiny black plastic – so its the perfect environment for them!
