Here is a video I made of a great silver water beetle larva (Hydrophilus piceus) feeding on a wandering pond snail (Radix labiata). It has an interesting method of feeding where, after grabbing the snail in its unsymmetrical mouthparts, it then curls its body around it to get a better hold as is devours it!…
DetailsA couple of weeks ago I noticed that the strange looking larva of the lesser diving beetle Acilius sp. (probably sulcatus) swimming around in a pond. I quick went and got a net and caught one, before taking it inside to photography in my aquarium set up. It is a fairly distinctive larvae with its…
DetailsLast week a realised that the emerald damselflies would soon be emerging and there would not be nymphs around for much longer. This because despite hatching in March/April, they only take a matter of weeks to grow and emerge as adults, so the time available to photograph them is not very long. I managed to…
DetailsSome pics from the Cairngorms now. Most people stick to the grouse and other highland specialties when in the the Cairngorms but I can’t resist a good toad photograph and at this loch there were 100s! They were in the water and on the paths. There were a few mating pairs. I I couldn’t resist…
DetailsToday at Wat Tyler there were dragonflies abound at the one pond I managed to visit in my lunch break. The first I noticed was this male broad bodied chaser On the water surface a number of azure damselflies in tandem were egg laying in the weed that was at the surface. Soon after I…
DetailsOn Sunday I popped to Stodmarsh NNR in Kent to see if I could see any hobbys or variable damselflies. I didn’t see any hobbies but I did see this pair of egg laying variable damselflies in tandem: I also spotted a Nuctenea cornuta spider capturing blue tailed damselfly pair As I watched it first…
DetailsMore from last year. Mating craneflies
These black ants were under a piece of carpet.
And ox eye daisy.
And I came across this ‘cuckoo spit’ which is actually foam produced by a the nymph of a froghopper, which it hides under.
Some from last year: Stretch spider Tetragantha extensa
It was eating a midge.
Last year I was photographing a cooperative blue tailed damselfly at Wat Tyler Country Park
On a trip to a reservoir in kefalonia we saw some interesting stuff. There were scarce chaser dragonflies flying around.
There were greek marsh frogs.
This mammoth wasp was on a flower.
A blue tailed damselfly perched nicely.
As did this beautiful demoiselle.
