Showing posts with label leech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label leech. Show all posts

Friday, June 28, 2013

Pond Life


 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.