From the journal Entomological Science (published online May 18th) comes this interesting predator-prey role reversal1:
Yes, that is a giant water beetle eating a turtle.
The photo was snapped by Shin-ya Ohba outside of Hyogo, Japan, while collecting samples for his research. While giant water beetles are known to chow down on smaller insects and small fish, finding one dining on a baby turtle is quite bizarre. Ohba writes:
"The bug inserted his proboscis into the neck of the turtle....Although I could not confirm whether the bug caught the turtle by himself in this observation, the dead body of the turtle was fresh. Probably, he had just captured the turtle. This is a first report of a Lethocerinae eating a turtle."
Pretty neat. And also pretty scary.
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1. S. Ohba . "Field observation of predation on a turtle by a giant water bug" . 2011 . Entomological Science . doi:10.1111/j.1479-8298.2011.00450.x
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