The Pond - April 2nd 2011

The Pond - 2011 - 07, originally uploaded by Pipsissiwa.

Everything is growing like crazy in the garden, and that certainly includes the pond.

The water forget-me-not is sending up shoots ready to flower and the iris is getting huge! The marsh marigolds are in full bloom, adding a golden glow to the pond edges.

The pond itself is full of life. We have dragonfly larvae, damselfly larvae and mayflies, water lice, loads of pond snails of assorted species and sizes, various beetles, daphnia (water fleas) and a tonne of unidentified larvae and worms.

Marvellous.

A Water Louse. They look just like woodlice, but with longer legs.

A selection of Insect larvae from the pond. The large greenish nymph is a damselfly, the two stumpy round-bodied ones are dragonfly nymphs and the smaller three-tailed one at the bottom is a mayfly larva.

Pill Woodlouse (Armadillidium vulgare) with Young

Pill Woodlouse (Armadillidium vulgare) with Young, originally uploaded by Pipsissiwa.

I have wanted to get photographs of this for years, and am thrilled that when I finally did they came out this well. Woodlice carry their eggs on their belly until hatching and the young go on their way. This pill woodlouse was fit to burst with hatched young. It always amazes me how so many babies fit into such a small space - when the egg sac bursts it is quite the explosion of young!

Woodlouse (Porcellio scaber)

Woodlouse, originally uploaded by Pipsissiwa.

Ah, the ubiquitous woodlouse. Or 'baker' as my mum calls them. Relatives of crabs and lobsters, they lurk in large numbers anywhere that is dark and damp, eating dead and decaying plant matter. Lift any stone, pot or dead branch on the ground and underneath will be woodlice. Hundreds probably. Their eyes are wonderful and look like something you'd see in a fossil, like a trilobite. If you're lucky, you may find one with tiny weeny baby woodlice nestled all over her belly. There are a number of different species of woodlouse in the UK, some more obviously different than others. I believe this is a 'Rough Woodlouse'.