A bucket of do not feed larvae

[jesper]

The last one is a nasty Dragonfly larva!
The small critters are mayfly larvae.
Can somone tell me what the rest is?

I bet my paras would see the dragonfly larva as a nice and juicy meal.

 

[mike]

Hi Jesper,

The other beasties are Waterboatman.

Here's a link:http://www.twingroves.district96.k12.il.us/Wetlands/Waterboatmen/Waterboatmen.html

 

[jesper]

Hi Mike,
Thanks.
The followup will be: Can I use them as snacks for big newts?

 

[benjamin]

No, they're so poisonous they're bites can even hurt humans!! They have the same effect as a bee sting, they even eat small gold fish, I've caught them doing it in my pond. I feed them all kinds of stuff in the summer, ants, flies, spiders, and even watch it's fun to watch them hunt, especially the big ones (2-4cm).

 

[alan]

As Ben says, the water boatmen are dangerous, but the mayfly larvae are good for adult aquatic newts (wouldn't trust them with very small larvae though).

 

[john]

The first are lesser water boatmen, Corixa spp.. They are not predatory and feed on detritus and plant material. The second is a so-called "greater" water boatman, Notonecta spp.. The dragonfly larva looks like a species of Aeshna, or possibly Anax (if memory serves though, I don't believe Anax are found in Sweden, so it's probably a species of Aeshna).

The mayfly larva is a trickier question. It's not Emphemera. I think it's probably Cloeon.

What I don't know about pond life hasn't been discovered by science .

And while I'm here, the contents of your bucket are all fine for feeding to newts, except for the greater water boatman/men and the dragonfly larva.

 

[john]

By the way, the greater water boatman could conceivably hurt you, so be careful with it.

 

[joseph]

Water boatmen are fun to have around if the newts don't eat them. I kept one in my tank for about a month or so. I think they eat plant matter and algae.

 

[william]

yeh beware of the greater waterboatmen, i had a nasty experience with one of those

 

[jesper]

Guess what I found in my apartment today?


A big fly that looks suspiciously like the mayfly larvae in my copepod/daphnia culture!

 

[jesper]

Just wanted to say that I had LOADS of mayflies in my apartment for weeks, they liked my white curtains for moulding on. They mould A LOT.

 

[ButtercupSaiyan]

Just wanted to say that I had LOADS of mayflies in my apartment for weeks, they liked my white curtains for moulding on. They mould A LOT.

Ew ....