Pond skater nymph

With small grandchildren visiting the garden, we have had to remove the hazardous large garden pond, leaving a small one protected by a safety grill. This spring the garden frogs laid a large amount of spawn in this miniature pool, so I eased the pressure on the pond by transferring some of the spawn to a large glass fish tank, where the tadpoles are growing fast.

Yesterday I noticed this pond skater nymph, with beautiful red eyes, scooting around on the surface. It must have hatched from an egg on water weed that I added from another pond.

At the moment it only has vestigial wings, so can't fly. It will take at least another instar before they develop fully and is able to escape from this confined hunting ground.