February Pics

[CW: Spiders]

Yet more activity from the flooded compost bin! This frog spooked me at first because I could only see its splayed-out legs floating on the water's surface. It wasn't until I peered over the lip of the bin that I saw their eyes staring back at me.

This loser had hilariously gotten themself stuck in the bin and was stretched out in the position you see here, trying to climb up. There'd been a big rainstorm the night before so it must have fallen in then. Fortunately it wasn't too hard to scoop them up in a jug and pour them out behind the logs where they hopefully found some shelter.

A dark green frog stretched out on the lip of a plastic bin.

Floating on the surface of the pond are these cute globular springtails. With the naked eye they have a very strong orange colour, but up close you can see their darker markings too.

A round springtail with light orange and brown markings on its body.

Also back in the pond are these worm things! I speculated before they might be a fly larvae but I still don't actually know what they are. There's a lot of them now though! They seem particularly active after rainy days and when there's lots of dead plants in the water, otherwise they seem to enjoy resting in all the silt collecting at the bottom of the pond.

Two aquatic worms eating algae from a rock. Their bodies are divided into multiple small segments.

After taking pictures of the pond life, this aphid landed on my glove! The coarse fibres were maybe a bit too thick for her to navigate, as she kept getting her antennae and legs caught, so I had to gently lift her off with a blade of grass. The colours on this species are nice!

A black aphid with hints of yellow running down the sides of its body.

Found this caterpillar on a stump after a rain storm. The texture on its head is cool, it's like a PS2 analogue stick.

A small pale-green caterpillar with a few dark markings on its body. Its head is black and has a rough leather-like texture.

Another bug found on a damp stump. This pointy creature kept turning its back to me as I was taking the photos so I'm not sure what it is. Maybe something like a leafhopper? Whatever it is, this is a very charming bug, particularly their eyes. It's like someone suck googly-eyes on them as a prank.

Two photos of a long angular bug on a very damp log. The second photo shows one of its eyes which look extremely silly.

A woodlouse! This is just a regular old Porcellio scaber but I rarely see them slow down and stop, so I took the opportunity to get a few pics while this one was resting. The best part of seeing them up close like this is watching how articulate their antennae are, this one was very carefully feeling its way around the rock, looking for a way to climb down.

Finally this spider! Not quite sure what species this is. I wasn't able to get a close up of its eyes, which would be the easiest way to identify them, but its body looks a bit like a wolf spider I guess.

A dark brown spider with light yellow patterns on its abdomen.