A couple of years ago a golf ball sized clump of white fuzz was fished out of some blanket weed on a pond dip. I had no idea what it was until I spotted the brown snorkel sticking out the water: it was the egg cocoon of the great silver water beetle! Unfortunately it would…
The Lesser backswimmer Plea minutissima is often overlooked, being quite small (about 3mm long), resembling and often mistaken for a small nymph of the ‘greater’ backswimmer (Notonecta sp.). They are a real pain to photograph, rarely stopping long enough to find such a small creature in the frame, let a alone focus on them! I…
Some photos taken using my photographic aquarium of a pirate spider Piraticus sp. This spider can be found around and sometimes on the surface of ponds. This one was flashing its fangs while on the water. This species should not be confused with the much larger raft spiders. This is another species to blog in…
A quick pond photo from last night, a broad bodied chaser dragonfly nymph.
Just a quick post and photo. I’ll have to blog about these cracking little bugs one day, but for now here is a a pic of a lesser water boatman.
Had another go at the ‘Meet the Neighbours’ style photos i.e. with a white background. Got some I’m pretty happy with. Newt tadpoles Lesser water boatman. Colymbetes fucus Diving beetle.
Regular readers will know I photograph pond creatures on a fairly regular basis, but up until today I have never managed a shot I’m happy with of a Water louse Asellus aquaticus. I catch them on most pond dips, but because they are so common, combined with the fact they have the habit tucking themselves…
Here a few shots of a common backswimmer Notonecta glauca. This individual has flipped over to the right way up at the surface in preparation to fly off. I took them a couple of years ago so they are not my best shots I’ll have to blog more about these amazing insects later on.
Another quick photo post, this time of a diving beetle larva. This beastie is famous for being a ferocious predator, sometimes attacking prey bigger then itself with its large pincer like mouthparts. They even eat each other! If you look closely you can see its covered in what looks like white fuzz. These are another…
After the success of the Pond olive mayfly larva post I thought I post about another of the ponds amazing creatures: the Phantom midge larva. I took some photos of these creatures today. They are specialised predators that live a mostly planktonic life. Floating around in open water they would be easily spotted and vulnerable…