Basic HTML Version
Water bugs –
The term ‘water bugs’ is
sometimes used for everything that lives
under the water. But bugs are only those
insects that have piercing mouthparts.
There are around seventy different species
of water bug. You might be able to spot:
backswimmers, lesser water boatmen,
water scorpions, water measurers and
water stick insects in your pond. Bugs are
often very good fliers – so they’re usually
some of the first creatures to arrive at new
garden ponds. Water bugs of one kind
or another should always be present in
a good quality wildlife pond. They’re not
particularly sensitive to pollution, and some
can live in the most unlikely of places
including ponds with lots of bare polluted
sediments, and no water.
Shrimps
–
In most garden ponds you will
find a small introduced American species
of shrimp called
Crangonyx pseudogracilis
.
The more familiar freshwater river shrimp
Gammarus pulex
does occur in ponds
with inflowing streams and springs, but isn’t
very happy in most garden ponds. People
believe that freshwater shrimps are good
indicators of whether a pond is polluted
or not. Actually this isn’t true, they are quite
tolerant of all sorts of pollutants, so they
can live in good ponds and bad.
Pond skaters –
You will find pond skaters
on the surface of practically every pond in
Britain. The common garden species are
all good fliers which can move from pond
to pond easily, and live on other insects
on and just under the water surface. Pond
skaters all look very similar to each other,
but there are actually 10 different species
found on ponds, lakes and even rivers
in Britain.
26
Water Measurer © Adrian Chalkley
Pond Skater © Katie Fulter