Breeding Predacious diving beetles

[ZephAmp]

I found a female today. I'm from Michigan.
Does anyone here have experience with breeding this species? I'm also on the look out for a male, so if there's any one with a good source of one, drop me a line as well.
I'm not sure of the species, would pics help? She's roughly 2.3 inches.

 

[Galapoheros]

Oh yeah, pics would help a lot, that's pretty big!, me want to see!

 

[ZephAmp]

I'm thinking she's a Dytiscus verticalis.
Anyone?

 

[beetleman]

yeah, looks like verticalis to me, she's awesome,i had them years back,i had them in a good sized tank(29 gal.) water half full,lot's of live plants w/very long stems,i had about 6 of them they did great but they never laid any eggs,they mated alot:? they lay their eggs in the stems of the plants right below the surface in the water,sometimes in the large leaves aswell(very rarely) and what i hear their larva(water tigers) are really big and awesome! ooh now i want more:drool: good luck w/yours,they are like piranhas w/legs

 

[beetleman]

i was just looking at it,i could be wrong but i see "discs" on the front feet which would make that a male,but again i'm trying to look closer,so i could be wrong.

 

[ZephAmp]

i was just looking at it,i could be wrong but i see "discs" on the front feet which would make that a male,but again i'm trying to look closer,so i could be wrong.

Would a side picture help? :?

 

[Galapoheros]

I may have kept the larvae of those, may be of the water beetles that are all black, don't know. They have Hellgrammite looking heads and can use their tiny front legs to swim a little. Alright I'm getting fired up to nerd it up a little with a net pretty soon, I've got an empty 10 gal, well, it has water in it. Pretty good defense with those legs when you try to hold them, haha.

 

[beetleman]

Would a side picture help? :?

if you can get a pic of the underside that may help

 

[ZephAmp]

if you can get a pic of the underside that may help

I can try and pick her up...
Oh boy... lol

 

[beetleman]

ive raised the ones down hear(fla) the water tigers are a bit smaller but still awesome they way they catch their prey,and hears someting else about the larvas....they are mildly venomous let me tell ya their bites hurt,but not for long,but the larger sp. hmmm don't wanna experiment w/that.

 

[zonbonzovi]

I've never heard of anyone actually getting these to breed viable offspring, but would be very interested in any results. Anyone else out there attempted or succeeded at any other water based inverts? Leeches, water scorps, dragonfly nymphs, water striders, etc.?

 

[Galapoheros]

I've played around with all that stuff but never tried to breed any of those things. Wow the larva are a little venomous?!, didn't know that. The worst pain I've ever felt from a bug around water was when I got nailed by a giant horsefly larvae going through some mud, MAN that hurt, it was the larvae of those huge black horseflies that kept following you everywhere while you were trying to get away from it when you were a kid, haha! I don't see very many of those anymore . Anyway ....OH yeah!, ..water beetles!

 

[beetleman]

my verticalis came from conn. down here in fla. we have the cybister sp. not as big but still very awesome and just as aggressive,and ofcourse some smaller sp. aswell, dytiscus harrissii!:worship: that is the holy grail of these guys:drool: mmmm.......me want some,and hey i'm not picky i'll take some more verticalis too