I WAS watching whirligig beetles in the margin of the canal the other day. They are very strange creatures — in fact all water beetles are a bit odd. The whirligigs are those small, dark beetles that gather in clusters on the water surface and swim round in mad circles. They are predators and apparently swimming in circles is a way of locating prey. They catch things on the surface and below it so they have two pairs of eyes, one for seeing in water and one for seeing in air. The purpose of the whirling is to create ripples. If something like a midge lands on the water surface it alters the pattern of the ripples and the beetles sense this instantly and uses it to locate the prey…
Irish Examiner, 10/06/13. Read the full article ‘Wonderful world of the whirligig‘.
