A quick sampling of the tadpoles in our garden pond showed that many of them were still some way off developing limbs, which I guess is a sign of the late spring - the frogs spawned very late this year. (Double-click for a larger image).
This tadpole is a sharing the trough that I photographed it in with a flatworm.
A water log-louse Asellus aquaticus. There are vast numbers of these scavengers down at the bottom of the pond, where there's thick layer of decaying leaves.
Underside of a water hog-louse. These crustaceans are isopods - all their legs are more or less the same length. For more isopods, click here and here.
Possibly the least lovable animal in the pond - a leech. I suspect that these parasitize the pond snails. The dark patterning is its digestive system, visible through the body wall.
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Interesting inhabitants of your pond. My pond has tiny,wild fish, which eat up the mosquito larvae. But they don't eat the snails who eat the lily leaves.
ReplyDeleteIt really needs repairing lotusleaf - a few years ago a heron pecked a hole in the butyl liner and it leaks!
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