I have a monster living in my house. And I've not even dated it. I have a small indoor heated aquarium, which fits within a picture frame and hangs on the wall of my living room. The tank is about 2.5 feet long by about 18 inches high by about 2 or 3 inches deep, and is fully enclosed in a wooden frame. It contains guppies and a lot of weed and snails. A couple of weeks ago I saw what I thought was a spider drowning, thrashing/swimming in the tank.I tried to fish it out but it buried itself in the gravel and I lost it. A few hours later I was amazed to see it sitting in the weed. Upon closer examination I could see it has six legs, clearly has a head, abdomen and thorax, has a laterally flattened body and its abdomen was pulsating, presumably to facilitate breathing. It was then about 10mm long but is now about 15. No fish seem to be disappearing and I have a number of baby guppies, which are smaller than it is.
But I suspect it is eating snails. I assume it is an insect larva and was probably introduced on the weed, possibly as an egg. But since it is a tropical tank I have no idea whether the weed is of native or foreign origin. Obviously it would be irresponsible to release a non-native insect species into the wild – although at this time of year (end of Nov) it would probably mean instant death even if it is native. I live in North Wales, UK. Has anyone got any idea what it is? What can I do with it?
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In November Sahar Dimus, our guide on four CFZ Sumatra expeditions, died of liver failure leaving a widow Lucy and four Children. On the 2nd November, Dezyama D. Sangma, wife of our friend and colleague Dipu Marak, our collaborator on the 2010 Indian expedition died, leaving her grieving husband and two small children.
2 comments:
http://www.umd.umich.edu/eic/aquatic_insecta/odonata/odonata_order.htm
I think it's a dragonfly larva. They live underwater for a long time before emerging as adults on land.
And another helpful site: http://www.dragonflysoc.org.uk/faq.html#lifecycle
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