A few weekends ago I went to Rainham Marshes where a friend of mine had organised a pond dip session. We found plenty but 2 species were of interest to me. The first was this saucer bug. You can see the front legs which have been modified into a prey grabbing pincer. I also got…
I had a quick dip in a pond at Wat Tyler CP this evening just before the sun had set. And when I say quick I mean I put the net in the water just the once! Along with a diving beetle larva was a small newt: I thought it was rather small for a…
A few weeks ago I found an alderfly larva in the bottom mud of a pond. They tend to be found in and on the pond bottom. They are quite distinctive with their many gill filaments on the abdomen and the pair of pincers at the front. They can sometimes be found crawling through weed…