Smooth Newt (Lissotriton vulgaris)

Life and Death in the Garden Pond

Larvae of the water beetle (Agabus bipustulatus) eating a tadpole (Rana temporaria)

Following the demise of my pond goldfish during the cold winter the garden pond has become a hive of activity. The fish would normally eat anything that moved including tadpoles and beetles. In their absence the pond has reverted to a more natural habitat and is full of tadpoles, dragonfly and damselfly larvae, and water beetles and their larvae. The water beetle larvae are vicious predators and can easily overpower the tadpoles which are often bigger than them. The tadpoles feed mainly on algae but they will eat any dead animals including their own siblings. They also quite like ham!

In these pictures the larvae of a water beetle (Agabus bipustulatus) is feeding on a tadpole (Rana temporaria). The larvae basically sucks the juices out of its prey.

Common Frog (Rana temporaria)

The frogs eventually started spawning in my garden pond last week, almost one month later than normal. The temperatures in Ireland over the past 2 months have been the lowest for 50 years. There are only 3 species of amphibians found in Ireland: the common frog, the smooth newt and the natterjack toad. Until recently the prevailing scientific opinion was that frogs were introduced into Ireland somewhere between the 10th and 16th century. However, a recent genetic study, published in 2009, suggests that Irish Rana temporaria differ genetically from British and Western European populations. The UK scientists who conducted the genetic study of populations of European common frogs have put forward the hypothesis that a population may have survived in a glacial refuge during the last ice age. European phylogeny of the common frog (Rana temporaria): routes of postglacial colonisation into the British Isles, and evidence for an Irish glacial refugium. Heredity (2009). Well, whatever about all that, my frogs survived the recent cold snap and they are ready to multiply!