While on the Forest School Course last weekend, a member of the group found a Glow worm (Lampyris noctiluca) larva, and he was christened Gary! I got some close ups. When it felt threatened he retracted his head, which at one point made me think it had been knocked off somehow! It would also adopted…
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…
A few shots of a darter dragonfly nymph (Sympetrum sp.) I took back in July with my photographic aquarium set up:
A few more pond creature aquarium photography shots. First up this small (1cm) Crawling water beetle (Hydrophilidae) larva. The nymph of a backswimmer. A pond skater nymph And a close up of a scarce emerald damselfly (Lestes dryas) nymph.
Yesterday I had a aquarium photography session. A 4mm long emperor dragonfly nymph turned up with this rather nice striped colouration. I have only seen this colouration once before, again it was an emperor, but that one was over a cm if memory serves. The one yesterday let me get one good side on shot.…
Some more photos from the aquarium set up in October, this time of a Southern Hawker (Aeshna cyanea) dragonfly nymph.
A few shots from last October, of a a nearly full grown smooth newt tadpole. I placed some leaves in the aquarium and let it move around, and got some pleasing shots.
A couple of Pond creature photos, taken with my aquarium set up a while back. Both of these are under 1cm long and required the use of extension tubes for grater magnification. First up this Haliplus water beetle larva. And a couple of phantom midge larvae close ups
Ive posted photos the larva of a lesser water beetle and the great silver water beetle recently, but the most ferocious of them all are the larvae of the great diving beetle species or Dytiscus larvae. If you mange to get one of these in your pond dipping tray, you will soon end up with…