One of the stranger finds from a stream kick sample taken in the Cairngorms was this hairy cranefly Pedicia sp. larva. When you mention cranefly larvae, most people will think of the leatherjacket found under lawns eating grass roots, but there are a number of aquatic species too. The thing that surprised me about this…
A little while ago I spotted a number of wasps chewing wood so I filmed them at 1/4th of normal speed using my Pentax WG-2. I filmed a number of clips and put the best bits together for this video In this video the first clip is at 1/4th normal speed, as is the second.…
Ive had a number of hawthorn shield bugs Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale in my garden recently. This posed for a few photos
When dipping the river at Bellever on Dartmoor I found a strange looking tube made of sand. I turned out to be the case of a Rheotanytarsus sp midge larva. Sadly it didnt seem to be occupied, but a new one for me anyway.
Some more white background photos, this time of the aquatic predator, a water scorpion Nepa cinerea.
A quick 1 photo post. A Screech or squeek beetle Hygrobia hermanni taken in my photographic aquarium
Another thing that turned up in my river sampling was this beautiful demoiselle nymph. I placed it in my photographic aquarium and managed some close ups of this alien look creature. In this photo you can see the large ‘horn’ behind the eye which distinguishes it from the related banded demoiselle. I found it among…
To celebrate the launch of the Freshwater Habitats Trust, I thought I would do a ‘best of’ my pond creature photos (some of which are being used by the FHT). These are a few of the nicer shots I’ve taken. First up, the first photo I was happy with of a four spotted chaser dragonfly…
Today I’m off to the Launch of the Freshwater Habitats Trust, formerly known as Pond Conservation. I hope to Tweet this evening from the meeting and blog after the event, but to celebrate the launch, here are some phantom midge larva photos. I blogged some of the fascinating things about these brilliant creatures here:
On Sunday I popped into RSPB Rainham Marshes in hope of finding some water voles. I had no luck but did find a couple of cooperative migrant hawker males. Sadly the light was not so cooperative m, with the sun increasingly dissappearing behind clouds, and doing so as the dragonfly hovering in front of me!…