The following have not yet been identified. If you recognise any of these species please leave a comment. Thanks!
Hundreds of little larvae in the pond at the beginning of May 2008:
Eggs underneath a frogbit leaf in the pond (July 2008):
I've uncovered several of these orange moth chrysalises when digging in our clay soil:
Some sort of crab? spider (bonus points for the hoverfly!):
There'll be a few more of these in a few days - mostly moths I suspect.
6 comments:
I think the spider is Misumena vatia but cannot claim the bonus points!
There is a distinct lack of illustrated literature of chrysalides. You could always keep one in a jar and see what emerges!
Thanks for the spider ID. I think I shall pop a chrysalis into a jar next time I find one (guess I better start doing some weeding then!)
I had loads of those larvae in my pond last year too. No idea what they were though.
Hi Helen
The larvae are (whisper it quietly) mosquito larvae. They will colonise new bare ponds quickly, but will then usually disappear. We have hardly any in our ponds now.
The eggs look like snail eggs. Looking back at your Big Pond Dip post, there was a pic of a Great Ram's-horn, so the eggs probably belong to them.
Jeremy
Thanks very much Jeremy: we didn't see any mosquito larvae in 2009 and our snails are definitely multiplying so that makes a lot of sense.
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