Diving Beetle Research & Conservation

Let’s dive in

Potapnik is a Czech language term for diving beetle. These were Jiri’s first love among the insects, when, a starry-eyed nerdy kid, he caught two large Dytiscus marginalis at his first light trap. Now, 40 years later, the obsession turned into passion for understanding, protecting and advocating for these exquisite creatures and for the clean waters they need.

Diving Beetle Research and Conservation, Inc., is a nonprofit organization registered in Florida. Its goal is to raise funds for research on the ecology and reproduction of select diving beetles – the most beautiful species – and increase their appreciation among entomologists, enthusiasts, and aquarists.

The project is currently in the process of obtaining permits for exotic diving beetle husbandry. Stay tuned, this may take a while, but we want to do this right. For information on how you, the reader of these pages, can keep these beautiful little submarines in your own home, please see our article here: https://ask.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/FR398.

For more information, email [email protected]

About us

Jiri Hulcr, founder and primary contact

Andrea Lucky, governing board member (education)

Thomas H. Atkinson, governing board member (Neotropical entomology)