Found a dinosaur in my pond!!!

[TrimTheKing]

What the turnip is this monster I just saw swimming around just under the surface of my pond?

He's about 2" long with an angry looking face with what look like nasty pincers curled and ready to rip off my arm!!!

Saw a couple more of them under the water too, along with some of the local frogs sunbathing on the bottom of the pond.

 

[maltrout512]

I would say that it is a dragonfly lava. They have a sweet tooth for newts.

 

[wizer]

One of those nauseating anecdotes that my parents always tell when north of a few beverages is when we were at our villa in Spain when I was about 5yrs old. Apparently I came running in from the patio shouting "There's a dinosaur out side!!" .... It was a lizard.. :lol:

 

[SketchUp Guru]

That thing looks like a vicious monster.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9Q8gUTmyd8

 

[Lons]

I would say that it is a dragonfly lava. They have a sweet tooth for newts.

what he said :!:

Bet you haven't got many tadpoles left

 

[TrimTheKing]

I would say that it is a dragonfly lava. They have a sweet tooth for newts.

what he said :!:

Bet you haven't got many tadpoles left

Wanna bet! The tads are a good 15mm across now and some are starting to get their legs. I'd like to see one of these beasties take on a tad. I reckon the size advantage would even out the pincers

 

[Lons]

I would say that it is a dragonfly lava. They have a sweet tooth for newts.

what he said :!:

Bet you haven't got many tadpoles left

Wanna bet! The tads are a good 15mm across now and some are starting to get their legs. I'd like to see one of these beasties take on a tad. I reckon the size advantage would even out the pincers

Must be picky little dinos then. I've seen them being eaten. (maybe more aggressive here in the frozen north).

I'm a fly fisherman sometimes and the trout go bananas for the monsters.

 

[jimi43]

Dragonfly larvae

Put it back and watch the monster turn into a beauty queen!

Beautiful creatures....Mother Nature is so glorious!

Jim

 

[TrimTheKing]

I need to do some reading about these beasties now. He went straight back in the water after the pics were taken, no harm done.

So do they grow their wings and everything under water then take off? Or find some flotsam to climb onto then evolve out of the water?

 

[Steve Jones]

Mark,

Normally the larvae will climb up a reed or iris stem and will slowly hatch out over a period of a few hours. Once hatched out they will hang there to dry out and the wings will fully expand. We've had common hawker dragonflies emerge out of our pond in the past, the picture Jimi has posted is called a Beautiful Demoiselle, which is a damselfly Contrary to popular belief dragonflies do not bite and some of them can be quite inquisitive around people.

You might find some further reading and links at

http://www.dragonflysoc.org.uk/home.html

HTH

Steve

Edit: After reading Dusty's post and having a look on google I also think it's a great diving beetle larvae

 

[barkwindjammer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk35zer0T10

 

[Dusty]

I think you may find it is a Great Diving Beetle Larvae . Google it and see what it turns in to .They are viscous little blighters and will bite given a chance .

Get rid of it in a neighbours pond as it will eat every thing inclueding tadpoles .

Kind regards Dusty[/img][/url]

 

[jimi43]

Tread on it then!



Jim

 

[Ironballs]

Dragonfly larvae (and it looks like it could be one, though don't know what the beetle larvae look like) will eat all kinds of rubbish and big ones have been known to have a go at smaller fish

 

[DavidE]

I had a similar experience last year - I didn't catch the blighter though.

Page 3 of this document is quite good:

http://wow4water.com/media/images/2006914141859.pdf

There are others about too. I'd be inclined to go with the Great Diving Beetle theory. We have some (beetles) in the pond and beasties that look like that. Sadly I've not seem any Dragonfly yet - I made one part of the pond to try to encourage them.

Cheers
David

 

[Anonymous]

that pic is serously making me judder, anyone seen aliens??

I am as hard as nails me, but there was one thing (now they're 2) which made me cringe and cry like a girl and thats cockroaches just the thought is making me all quesy

 

[SammyQ]

I think it's a Dytiscus beetle larva, not a dragonfly larva. I caught one of these as a student, three decades ago, and I can still remember the SIZE of the thing. It was simply, the most amazing Arthropod in that it's strength, viciousness and killing equipment were orders of magnitude greater than any of us had ever seen. We were warned by the Prof. not to let that hardware at the front end get anywhere near our skin; as record showed that a) the bite itself was painful and b) IIRC, the beastie injected venom, which was non-fatal to humans, but VERY painful - on a parr with jellyfish stings, but more localised.

I suspect, without recourse to guides and books, that dragonfly larvae may be smaller?

If you've got an infestation of these in your pond, as the environment heats up (and their metabolism gets faster), you could see a depletion of tadpoles and aquatic life in general - including surprisingly large fish.

Have fun. Sam

 

[misterfish]

Pretty sure it's the diving beetle.

Have a look at http://www.countrysideinfo.co.uk/successn/gdb.htm

Misterfish

 

[SammyQ]

Wot Mr Fish just said:

Great Diving Beetle Dytiscus marginalis

Nice one, MF; saved me digging out my limnology notes and photos.

Sam

 

[woodbloke]

They have a sweet tooth for newts.

Pete had better stay clear then :lol: - Rob