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…
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…
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.
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…
A few shots from July, taken with my photographic aquarium set up, of a couple of medium sized diving beetle species. First up Colymbetes fuscus. I also photographed this smaller Rhantus sp. probably Rhantus frontalis.
back in June I found some smaller diving beetles that were very dark in colour. I guessed they were no Dytiscus and with a bit of research settled on Ilybius sp. I got some different angles, including this one of the air bubble at teh tip of the abdomen. And my favourite one was this…
A few months back I pond (well lake) dipped at a private nature reserve trying to get some dragonfly nymphs. I failed to find any, but did find some excellent saucer bugs, something I had only seen twice before. They are true bugs (Heteroptera), which also includes the water boatmen, pond skaters and water scorpions,…