Tadpoles being predated

[larachmor]

I'm certainly no expert on aquatic life, but I was fascinated by this little fella lurking in my pond and seemingly doing very well feeding on the tadpoles in my pond. A little bit of research on the forum here and on Google shows it to be a diving beetle larva, which, by all accounts, once it's latched on to its unfortunate prey converts it into some kind of soup to consume it. My pond has had a large deposit of hundreds of tadpoles this year, so hopefully this beetle and perhaps one or two of its mates won't have too much of an impact.

[Ukwildlifeo]

Time to say good bye to your tadpoles!

Seriously though, despite the fact these guys seem to attack and eat anything that comes into range, even when in a pond dipping tray, the sheer number of tadpoles should mean some survive

[dampflippers]

I heard or read somewhere that only about 5 tadpoles from a clump of spawn will survive to adulthood- that is why frogs lay so many eggs.

So it is all part of the food web.

[Matt Smith]

Your predator is a Dytiscus larva