- Animals
- ›Arthropods
- ›Hexapods
- ›Insects
- ›Winged and Once-winged Insects
- ›Beetles
- ›Ground and Water Beetles
- ›Dytiscoidea
- ›Predaceous Diving Beetles
- ›Cybistrinae
- ›Cybister
- ›Cybister

Golden Edge Diving Beetle
Cybister chinensis
Cybister chinensis is a species of diving beetle native to East Asia. It is predatory, feeding on tadpoles, small fish and aquatic insects, and adults are about 3.3–4.2 cm (1.3–1.7 in) long.
From the article Cybister chinensis on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
In human culture
This beetle is the focus of the Water Beetle Song (물방개 노래), a traditional Korean children's song. It reveals this beetle's shape and movement were the inspiration for Imjin War naval officer and scientist-shipbuilder Na Dae-yong's design of his turtle ship. He is known to have sighted one spinning around in a reservoir. Set at this pivotal moment, the song is written in his voice as he praises how well the beetle spins and tells it he will build a ship resembling it. He declares that his invention will defeat the marine enemies to come. This way, he foretells the future Imjin War. To this day, Na Dae-yong's descendants have been passing down the Water Beetle Song orally. It has also been attested from Naju, his city of origin, along with from Oryun-dong.
== References ==
Wikipedia: “In culture”
Listen
Looking for field recordings…
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Cybister chinensis in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 711876.