Hydroglyphus pusillus, the Tiny Tiger

Hydroglyphus pusillus, copyright Udo Schmidt.

Let's take another visit to the world of diving beetles. Above is Hydroglyphus pusillus, one of the few representatives in northern Europe of a genus that otherwise includes close to ninety species spread through the Old World, primarily in the tropics. Hydroglyphus species are tiny diving beetles, only about two or three millimetres in length, with an elongate oval body shape. Characteristic features of the genus include basal striae on the pronotum and elytra, sutural striae on the elytra, and no transverse stria on the top of the head (Watts 1978, as Guignotus, a subsequently synonymised name). Species are often marked with distinctive colour patterns of streaks and blotches.

Hydroglyphus pusillus attacking larva of mosquito Culex pipiens, from Bellini et al. (2000).

Despite their small size, Hydroglyphus species are (like other diving beetles) voracious predators of other aquatic insects. Bellini et al. (2000) investigated the possible role of H. pusillus in controlling mosquito larvae in flooded rice fields in Italy. The larvae of H. pusillus mostly kept to the bottom sediment (so might be expected to be hunting prey other than mosquitoes) but adults were the most abundant diving beetle in the water column at the surveyed locations. One might expect that H. pusillus would not be effective predators of mosquito larvae that greatly outsized them. One would be wrong: not only are they indeed capable of taking down mosquitoes, Bellini et al. went so far as to describe their effects as "a real slaughter". A diving beetle latching onto a mosquito larva would soon find itself joined by others seemingly scenting haemolymph in the water. Between them, this mob of beetles could destroy a larva in a matter of seconds. Tiny, but terrifying.

REFERENCES

Bellini, R., F. Pederzani, R. Pilani, R. Veronesi & S. Maini. 2000. Hydroglyphus pusillus (Fabricius) (Coleoptera Dytiscidae): its role as a mosquito larvae predator in rice fields. Boll. Ist. Ent. "G. Grandi" Univ. Bologna 54: 155–163.

Watts, C. H. S. 1978. A revision of the Australian Dytiscidae. Australian Journal of Zoology, Supplementary Series 57: 1-166.

Dealing with a Clingy Male

Diving beetles of the family Dytiscidae are a distinctive component of the freshwater environment in most regions of the world. They have an oval, streamlined body form and powerful hind legs, usually with fringes of stiff setae, that are ill-suited for movement on land but make them adept swimmers. They are also almost always capable fliers, allowing them to find their way to water bodies of any size from large lakes to small, temporary pools. Both adults and larvae are active hunters, preying on other aquatic arthropods or even small vertebrates. Most diving beetles are fairly dull in coloration but exceptions are found among members of the tribe Aciliini.

Sunburst diving beetle Thermonectus marmoratus, from Insectarium de Montréal, René Limoges.

Members of the Aciliini are moderately sized diving beetles, generally between one or two centimetres in length. Dorsally they have a yellow to red base coloration with contrasting dark markings. The hind legs are robust with the hind tibia short and broad. Males have the base of the tarsus of the front legs broadened into a round palette with setae on the underside modified into sucking discs, used to hang onto the females when mating; this discs may be present on the tarsus of the mid pair of legs as well. They are strong swimmers, often venturing into the open waters of lakes and pools, and contrast with other diving beetles in that they may be found in pools lacking submerged vegetation (Roughley & Larson 2001; Bergsten & Miller 2006). Larvae have a distinctive arched body shape with a small head (Bukontaite et al. 2014), kind of shrimp-like, and also tend to be more pelagic than the larvae of other diving beetles. Females have gonocoxae (the appendages at the end of the abdomen that function as the ovipositor) that are relatively long with a broadened, spoon-like ending (Miller 2001); these are used to insert eggs into damp moss or under loose bark of vegetation lying just above the waterline. There is usually just one generation per year and adults in cold regions overwinter in larger water bodies that remain unfrozen.

Alternate morphs of female Graphoderus zonatus with granular (left) and smooth elytra, from Holmgren et al. (2016).

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of aciliin diving beetles regards their sexual dimorphism. As noted above, males have a set of suckers on the fore legs for hanging onto females when mating. However, females of some species have sculpted elytra rather than the smooth elytra of males, such as a granular surface in Graphoderus species or long, setose sulci in female Acilius. The uneven surface produced by these features presumably functions to reduce the efficacy of the males' suckers, allowing the females more control when selecting a mate. That such a conflict exists is supported by the observation that the more developed the males' sucker arrays in a population, the more likely the females are to have repellent sculpturing. Males of some diving beetle species have been observed grabbing at any female they encounter, followed by the female swimming rapidly and erratically in an attempt to shake the male off or knock him off against the substrate or objects in the water (Miller 2003). Where this becomes really interesting is that some species have dimorphic females with some females in the population having sculpted elytra whereas others are smooth. What could be the reason for such variation? The presence of both forms in the population suggests that neither has a complete advantage over the other. It may be that smooth-backed females trade reduced defenses for improved swimming ability. Alternatively, a defensive female may be able to ensure that only the strongest and most resilient males can mate with her, but runs the risk of not mating at all if she never encounters a male who can overcome her defenses. A less defensive female may be more vulnerable to any male she encounters but at least she's bound to be fertilised at some point.

REFERENCES

Bergsten, J., & K. B. Miller. 2006. Taxonomic revision of the Holarctic diving beetle genus Acilius Leach (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae). Systematic Entomology 31: 145–197.

Bukontaite, R., K. B. Miller & J. Bergsten. 2014. The utility of CAD in recovering Gondwanan vicariance events and the evolutionary history of Aciliini (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae). BMC Evolutionary Biology 14: 5.

Holmgren, S., R. Angus, F. Jia, Z. Chen & J. Bergsten. 2016. Resolving the taxonomic conundrum in Graphoderus of the east Palearctic with a key to all species (Coleoptera, Dytiscidae). ZooKeys 574: 113–142.

Miller, K. B. 2003. The phylogeny of diving beetles (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae) and the evolution of sexual conflict. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 79: 359–388.

Roughley, R. E., & D. J. Larson. 2001. Dytiscidae Leach, 1815. In: Arnett, R. H., Jr & M. C. Thomas (eds) American Beetles vol. 1. Archostemata, Myxophaga, Adephaga, Polyphaga: Staphyliniformia pp. 156–186. CRC Press: Boca Raton.

Boreonectes: Diversity Hidden Underwater

The beetle in the photo below (copyright Joakim Pansar) may or may not be Boreonectes griseostriatus. This small diving beetle, a few millimetres in length, has been regarded in the past as widespread with a distribution spanning the Holarctic region. However, in recent years it has become apparent that this single widespread species may actually be a number of more localised species in a skin.

This possibility had been considered for a while. In 1890, a Norwegian entomologist recognised distinct montane and coastal species, noting a tendency for the former to the neatly striped whereas the latter was more blotchy. Later authors, however, rejected this distinction. In 1953, a Russian author expressed the view that B. griseostriatus "varies markedly in many characters; all attempts to establish subspecies and varieties are unjustified, because almost all varieties are connected by transitions" (Angus et al. 2015). In its overall appearance, B. griseostriatus is a a fairly undistinguished small diving beetle. Most of the body surface is densely and finely punctate both dorsally and ventrally, and it lacks some of the modifications found in other diving beetles such as lateral grooves on the pronotum or sucker-hairs on the male tarsi (Angus 2010). This latter feature, offhand, is an adaptation that assists males who have it in clinging to the backs of females during mating. Their functionality would be much reduced in punctate species such as B. griseostriatus because the the uneven surface of the female would prevent the suckers from getting a grip, and phylogenetic studies suggest that their absence in Boreonectes may represent a secondary loss. I don't know if the Boreonectes males do anything to make up for their absence; maybe they just have to grip tighter.

Variation in parameres from male genitalia of the Boreonectes griseostriatus group, from Dutton & Angas (2007).

The complicated nature of B. griseostriatus' identity became really apparent in the 2000s when karyotypic studies on European specimens identified several different chromosomal races, distinct not only in chromosome topography but also in number, that may represent distinct species. The original B. griseostriatus of lowland Sweden possesses a karyotype of thirty pairs of autosomal chromosomes plus the X sex chromosome (sex is determined in this genus by an X0/XX system where males have one copy of the X chromosome and females have two, with no Y chromosome). Boreonectes multilineatus, the Scandinavian montane species, has 28 autosomal pairs. Other species have fewer. It appears likely that a similar thing is happening in Boreonectes to the situation I described in an earlier post for the bat genus Rhogeessa where mutations lead to chromosomes becoming fused or split. It is notable in this regard that Angus (2010) found several specimens of B. ibericus from Morocco that were heterozygous for a chromosomal fusion, so that a single fused chromosome was paired meiotically with distinct chromosomes 1 and 24.

Externally, however, these genetically distinct species remain all but indistinguishable. There may be a tendency for one species to be larger than another, or towards slightly different genital morphologies, but these differences are not distinct enough or consistent enough to provide a reliable guide to identification. Which, if you don't have access to fresh specimens allowing a karyotype spread, is a problem.

REFERENCES

Angus, R. B. 2010. Boreonectes gen. n., a new genus for the Stictotarsus griseostriatus (De Geer) group of sibling species (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae), with additional karyosystematic data on the group. Comparative Cytogenetics 4 (2): 123–131.

Angus, R. B., E. M. Angus, F. Jia, Z.-N. Chen & Y. Zhang. 2015. Further karyosystematic studies of the Boreonectes griseostriatus (De Geer) group of sibling species (Coleoptera, Dytiscidae)—characterisation of B. emmerichi (Falkenström, 1936) and additional European data. Comparative Cytogenetics 9 (1): 133–144.