I took a tip from Insect Journal and headed down the road with bucket and net to get insects and tadpoles for our pond. In this case a swampy area on the side of the road which will dry up in the next couple of months.

Let me tell ya, it was Tadpole Wednesday. Big ones, little ones all wriggling in the shallow warm water, waiting to sprout legs. Swish with the fish net and out comes a bunch of tadpoles, brackish mud, and decomposing plant matter. That's ok, I'll take it all. I noticed that among the rotting cattail leaves where what looked like little bur or nettle pods, maybe even a sweet gum pod. No problem, into the bucket.

Back home at the pond I distributed our new found friends along the warm shallows. I also put in big handfuls of thick, stinky black soil and wild plant mass that I'd grabbed. Figured the pond could use rich loam for bug and plant alike.

After the dust settled, so to speak, I got on my belly and watched the activity for a while. There was all manner of movement. Tadpoles, some kind of little beetles (predacious diving beetles perhaps?), and a flash of what might have been a micro-minnow.

The strange thing, the most unexpected, was when one of the "seed pods" moved. At first I thought it might be settling to the bottom. But then it started coming back up. Over, up, down, and around one of the underwater rocks. As it moved onto a fuzzy, algae covered rock I noticed it had legs. What I mistook for a bur or seed pond turned out to be a rag tag collection of miniature sticks, stacked and glued in some manner, to comprise a low-rent shell.

This is no seed pod, it's an insect hobo!

Caddisfly Larva [thanks Insectophile]

Anyone know what it might be? Leave a comment. Update: Brian & Jeff at work both pointed out the similarity to a decorator crab.

• info
  • 1 comment
  • permanent link
  • email this