Download Identification of Pondlife

IDENTIFICATION OF POND LIFE
Water boatmen
Order Hemiptera
Class Insecta
Phylum Arthropoda
Powerful swimmers that can fly.
They eat algae and dead plant
matter. They suck up food using
their proboscus
Daphnia
Order Diptera
The mosquito goes through four
separate and distinct stages of its
life cycle: Egg, Larva, Pupa, and
Adult.
Eggs are laid one at a time or attached together to form “rafts.”
with a flip of their tails towards the
bottom or protective areas.
Order Diptera
Larvae have siphon tubes for
breathing and hang upside down
from the water surface.The larvae
feed on microorganisms and
organic matter in the water.
The pupal stage is a resting, nonfeeding stage of development,
but pupae are mobile, responding
to light changes and move
(tumble) with a flip of their tails
towards the bottom or protective
Stonefly nymphs
Phylum Arthropoda
Class Insecta, Order Plecoptera
Members of this group have two
`tails', long antennae and two pairs
of wing pads. They are usually
found among stones or aquatic
plants in cool, non-polluted streams.
Some species eat plants, some eat
animals and others eat bothThey
may occur as nymphs for most of
the year and as adults or eggs for
the remainder .
Mayfly nymphs
Class Insecta
Order Ephemeroptera
Such species have three `tails',
short antennae and lateral gills
along the abdomen. They are
usually found under stones in
fast-flowing water or among
vegetation or collections of leaves
and twigs in slow-flowing water.
Mayfly nymphs feed mostly on
algae and detritus Adult mayflies
do not feed, and live for only a
Caddis-fly larvae
Class Insecta, Order Trichoptera
Caddis-fly larvae
Class Insecta, Order Trichoptera
Caddis-fly larvae have a soft body
with three pairs of legs below the
head. Larvae from some caddis-fly
families build portable cases or
`homes' made from material such
as leaves, twigs, cemented stones
or sand grains.
Usually only the head and legs
protrude from the case. The
case-building caddis-fly larvae
mostly feed on plant material,
algae or detritus (fine organic
matter). The free-living caddis-fly
larvae which do not construct
cases are generally carnivorous,
eating other invertebrates.
Elmids or riffle beetles
Class Insecta,
Order Coleoptera
Family Elmidae
The adults of elmids (riffle beetles)
are tiny and black or dark brown in
colour. Their larvae are generally
small and elongated shaped' with
retractile gills on their last body
segment.Neither adults nor larvae
can swim, but are generally found
crawling on stones,or logs in the
Yabbies
Class Crustacea
Order Decapoda
Family Parastacidge
Yabbies are large robust crustaceans with strong grasping forelegs (`pincers'). They are smoothshelled and generally light brown
or blue-black in colour. Yabbies
feed mainly on dead plant material, but may also eat invertebrates, algae and living plants.
Amphipods, scuds or sideswimmers
Class Crustacea
Order Amphipoda
Shrimps
Class Crustacea
Order Decapoda
Family Atyidae
Shrimps are small (up to 2-3 cm
long), transparent, fast-moving
crustaceans, with long slender
legs. They commonly live among
aquatic plants or loose stones
especially in slow flowing areas,
and scavenge for their food comprising of dead animals and
These are small crustaceans (up to
about 10 mm long) have laterally
compressed bodies (that is, flattened from side to side) and seven
pairs of walking legs. They feed
mostly on organic detritus, aquatic
vegetation or by scavenging dead
Jan Stevenson. GSC.
Order Anostracaclass
Class Branchiopoda
Daphnia swims by using its antennae as it filters tiny plants and
animals from the water.
During dry periods daphnia eggs
can survive in the soil for many
years. The dry eggs can be dispersed by the wind to form new
colonies.
Dragon-fly and damsel-fly nymphs
Class Insecta, Order Odonata
Each of these nymphs is a predator,
with a hinged grasping `jaw', large
eyes and slender legs. Dragon-fly
nymphs are short and chunky and
do not have external gills. Damsel-fly
nymphs are slender and have three
leaf-like gills at the end of their body.
Adult dragon-flies extend their wings
out horizontally when at rest, while
adult damsel-flies hold their wings
Mites
Class Arachnida, Order Acarina
Water bugs
Other beetles
Class Insecta, Order Hemiptera
Class Insecta, Order Coleptera
You can identify water bugs by their
beak-like mouthparts, which they
use for piercing their prey and extracting body juices. They can be
found among aquatic plants on the
water surface or swimming through
slowly flowing or still water. All water
bugs are carnivorous, feeding on
animals.
Various beetle adults and larvae
can, as a general rule, be found in
water of poorer quality than that
inhabited by elmids. Some common ones are listed here.
Diving beetles
Family Dytiscidae
Water-scavenger beetles
Family Hydrophilidae)
The adults range in length from 1
mm to more than 40 mm. They are
dark, smooth and oval-shaped somewhat like diving beetles - but
can be distinguished by their short
club-like antennae and their habit
of hanging, head-uppermost, from
the water surface. The herbivorous adults feed on living and
dead plant materials; however, the
larvae use their large crushing
The adults are hard, oval and
smooth, with flat, hair-covered hind
legs that act as oars or paddles.
They range from about 5 to 25 mm
long and, although generally dark,
some may be brightly coloured. Air
carried in a chamber beneath their
wings allows diving beetles to stay
submerged for long periods. Like
their larvae, which are sometimes
Whirligig beetles
Family Gyrinidae
The common name comes from the
adults' habit of swimming rapidly in
irregular curves on the water surface.
They can be up to 2cm long or less,
with long slender front legs and flat
middle and hind legs. The division of
their eyes into top and bottom portions enables them to see both
above and below the surface, which
helps them to locate their prey
Water pennies
Family Psephenidae
Snails and limpets
Phylum Mollusca, Class Gastropoda
Both snails and limpets are softbodied animals with hard, resistant
shells, which are coiled in the former
case but flattened and cap-like in
limpets. Limpets - usually small (less
than 6 mm diameter) - commonly
occur on the leaves of submerged
plants. Both animals are mainly
herbivorous, grazing on the algae
that coat most submerged surfaces
Flatworms
Phylum Platyhelminthes
Class Turbellaria
Leeches
Phylum Annelida, Class Hirudinea
Freshwater worms
Phylum Annelida,
Class Oligochaeta
Oligochaetes are cylindrical, segmented animals, usually brown or
pink, with four bundles of minute
bristles (setae) on each body segment. They can vary in length from
less than 0.5 mm to several centimetres. They feed on organic
material in the silt or mud of the
stream or lake bed. Some species,
especially in the
Suckers at each end of the body
distinguish these worm-like animals,
which can be brightly coloured or
dark. Some leeches take blood from
animals such as frogs, fish and turtles, while others do not feed on
blood but prey on other invertebrates
or scavenge for their food.
Jan Stevenson. GSC.
These small (pinhead size to 4
mm long) macro-invertebrates are
generally either globular or flat
disc-shaped, with four pairs of
legs. They are often bright red,
green or blue in colour. Mites feed
by sucking the body fluids from
small animals.
In this case the name comes from
the brown, flattened, oval larvae,
up to 12 mm long, because they
looked rather like the coins in our
former currency. These larvae
stay pressed flat against stones in
fast-flowing sections of stream,
where they graze on the algae
growing on the stones. Adult water
pennies live only a short time (and
These small (usually less than
about 15 mm long), soft-bodied,
flattened animals glide over the
surface of plants and stones. They
are mostly scavengers, feeding on
soft or decomposing animal matter
Frogs
Class Anphibia
Order Anura
Frogs have a life cycle with 2
distinct stages,living in water as
young, and on land as adults.
Frogs lay large numbers of eggs in
water, which hatch into small fishlike larvae called tadpoles.
Cyclops
Class crustasea
Order Copepoda
The cyclops has 5 pairs of legs
and a divided tail-like appendage called a furca. It has one
eye in the middle of its head and
is called after a mythological
creature.
Spirillum
Bacteria are generally much too
small to be seen without special
staining and a powerful microscope. But spirillum, a very
large bacterium, can be seen
very easily. These sausage
shaped bacteria are often joined
end to end in a spiral and they
roll through the water with a
corkscrew motion. Spirillum can
be found in polluted water.
Euglena
Euglena are a common single cell
algae. They contain chlorophyll
like a plant, but swim actively by
lashing their whip-like flagellum.
Amoeba
Amoeba are fairly common
protozoans. Amoeba are apparently shapeless blobs of
jelly, which move about by
pushing out "arms"
(pseudopodia)
and then flowing into them.
They eat by wrapping themselves
around their prey.
Gastrorich
Grouped with rotifers in Phylum
Aschelminthes.
They may observed under the
microscope. They are multicellular and have a distinguishable
forked tail.
Paramecium
Paramecium are protozoans,
they are covered with rapidly
beating cilia: tiny hairs which
push it along very fast. Unlike
Amoeba, it has a mouth in a
groove halfway along its body.
Hydatina
A common rotifer, grouped as a
class of Phylum Aschelminthes.
Rotifers feed on algae and may
be observed swimming about
under the field of a microscope.
Jan Stevenson. GSC.
The tadpoles grow larger as they
feed on algae and bits of plants.
As it begins metamorphosis the
tadpole grows hind limbs. After
both pairs of limbs are complete
and the animal has exchanged its
gills for lungs the young frogs
crawls out on land. The frog absorbs the rest of its tail and continues to grow until it reaches its
adult size
Spirogyra
Spirogyra are a thread-like
green algae which contain a
corkscrew-like structure containing their chlorophyll.