Surface dwellers

[Ukwildlifeo]

One of the advantages of my recent decent photo drought has been catching up with editing photos from the summer. I took some photos of surface dwelling heteroptera (bugs) last year uing my aquarium set up:

Pond skaters




And the odd looking Water measurer. This one is the rare winged form.

[htcdude]

Wow great shots! Especially the second one

Nige

[Billabong Karen]

Great photos. Bring back summer!!!

[DorsetDunk]

i like the water measures used to enjoy watching them wandering around on the surface of my aquarium
i have not spent enough time shooting the water bugs yet, i think there are over 20 species of water boatman alone so a good project for warmer days

[Ukwildlifeo]

Thanks folks

Originally Posted by DorsetDunk

i like the water measures used to enjoy watching them wandering around on the surface of my aquarium
i have not spent enough time shooting the water bugs yet, i think there are over 20 species of water boatman alone so a good project for warmer days

I tried keying out a few but with lesser water boatmen at least it involves good old genital dissection so I passed on that one for now!

I've seen and photographed all the groups of freshwater heteroptera found in British ponds: water scorpion, lesser and greater water boatman, pygmy backswimmer, water measurer, pond skaters, water crickets, saucer bug, except for one: water stick insect.

[DorsetDunk]

dissection for identification is a bit daunting to me too ,i have been asked to start doing this with the leafhopper's which is the group i have started to specialise in ,I was hoping by amassing macro shots of each species that subtle external features would be 100% reliable for id when compared
but i still need to start a collection of dead specimens which i am not keen on
I just checked out your blog the pond creatures images are very impressive indeed, the images on this thread do not do them justice at all as the quality is exceptional, certainly will be exploring the rest of your blog now i have it bookmarked
All the best
Mark

[Ukwildlifeo]

Originally Posted by DorsetDunk

dissection for identification is a bit daunting to me too ,i have been asked to start doing this with the leafhopper's which is the group i have started to specialise in ,I was hoping by amassing macro shots of each species that subtle external features would be 100% reliable for id when compared but i still need to start a collection of dead specimens which i am not keen on

Ive decided to shy away from it until Im trained to ID properly. Sadly it will always be a necessary evil with some species

Originally Posted by DorsetDunk

I just checked out your blog the pond creatures images are very impressive indeed, the images on this thread do not do them justice at all as the quality is exceptional, certainly will be exploring the rest of your blog now i have it bookmarked
All the best
Mark

Cheers Mark. Much appreciated

[Matt Smith]

Originally Posted by Ukwildlifeo

I tried keying out a few but with lesser water boatmen at least it involves good old genital dissection so I passed on that one for now!.

Which genera / species are you having to dissect?

[Ukwildlifeo]

Originally Posted by Matt Smith

Which genera / species are you having to dissect?

Its seems mos tthe corixidae seem to need close up insection of small features to speciate. I won't claim to be an expert on these but I'm basing it on KEY TO THE ADULTS OF BRITISH LESSER WATER BOATMEN http://www.field-studies-council.org...vol7.3_199.pdf

Perhaps not dissect but it seems dead specimens are needed for the close up examinations.

[DorsetDunk]

its the genital segments with the hoppers that need to be examined you have to capture the right gender then its still hit and miss as many are parasited which are often the slower ones which allow themselves to be caught was experimenting last season with a glass test tube to get macro shots from beneath but still a frustratingly slow and awkward process to achieve useful results