I’m a bit of a pond dipper, as some regular readers will have worked out, but there is one species that has always eluded me, the water stick insect. This year I saw a preserved specimen and a captive one (which I never managed to photograph), but never before had I seen a live wild water stick insect. Yesterday however, while looking in a pond I rarely dip, I found this in my net:
I finally got one!
I took plenty of photos, including a close up.
Side view
And swimming at the surface.
