Since the pond ice melted 2 weeks ago, I have been visiting the ponds each weekend and collecting protists, water beetles and anything else that is interesting. I hope to keep this up throughout the summer as the abundance of organisms changes drastically even over one week as does the species that appear. As the ice was melting Amphipods were the most abundant, now seeing Daphnia, Volvox, and copepods becoming more abundant. Of course the species various also between ponds. Lots of interesting organisms appearing and its a great time to collect organisms for viewing with a microscope. Interesting that Hydra seem to appear later in the summer - June and July where I live. I am trying to capture some backswimmers,diving beetles and dragon fly larva.
Below are couple of images from Mothers Day.
- Dragon fly larva -early instar? Panoramic image
- s136-88-94Pan2web.jpg (54.6 KiB) Viewed 1264 times
- Bdelloid rotifers attached to Chaoborus larva - Polarized and DF
- DSC_0229.jpg (135.78 KiB) Viewed 1264 times
- Pandorina? Rheinberg lighting
- DSC_0185.jpg (141.46 KiB) Viewed 1264 times
- Daphnia - Bright field, Darkfield & Polarization, DIC microscopy
- DSC_0097_largecomp.jpg (93.76 KiB) Viewed 1264 times
Cheers
RB
