Growing up, my dad always made my sisters and I bug cages. These were little mesh enclosures that we could use to catch insects as well as small reptiles and place them inside to watch them, try and feed them and do whatever we decided to do. I suppose this might be the origin of my interest in insects. After gaining a more in depth interest into Entomology and especially changing my major however, it was then that I began to really realize the diversity with insects. One family that I personally find interesting are the Whirligigs of the family Gyrinidae in the order Coleoptera also known as beetles.
I had always seen these zipping around the water surface of ponds and lakes far and wide. Once I learned about them however I found out about their split eyes.
By splitting their eyes up, they are able to easily see above the water to keep an eye out for predators using their dorsal eyes while simultaneously looking below the water for prey using their ventral eyes. If you casually were to look at these beetles on the waters' surface you might notice the dorsal eye however most people would never imagine having a second set of eyes below.
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