I have a pond jar. The jar is an empty plastic peanut butter container. I filled it with water, animals, and plants from the nearby river and pond.
One of the things I put in the jar is a predacious diving beetle. Which is one of the top invertebrate predators in small ponds. The predacious diving beetle in my jar is 2 1/2 centimeters long. Although other predacious diving beetles vary in size.
If you are looking to find a predacious diving beetle you can look in small ponds or large puddles in ditches or grassy places. We've also found the beetles on our trampoline and deck. We think that the beetles land on dark surfaces like these thinking that they're a puddle or pond. You can find other species of water beetles the same way. But make sure they are water beetles before you put them in a pond jar. You don't want to drown them. Or do you? Well, I don't want to drown them.
The predacious diving beetles I've found eat small minnows, tadpoles, insect larvae and nymphs and a variety of underwater eggs. Such as snail and frog eggs.
My pond jar also has a lot of water snails. Freshwater snails do not have gills, they are air breathing. When they come to the surface they open their breathing hole, called a pneumostone, which is closed when they are under water. Then they take a breath and go back down.
The predacious diving beetle and snails are two of my favorite pond critters. I also have a variety of other small invertebrates in my pond jar.
