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Chances are, you've once already walked next to a pond; maybe you gazed into it and watched the small dots of something rushing over the surface. And chances are, you've seen and heard the rustling of the wings of damselflies buzzing around the pond's vicinity. But what are these small dots on the surface, and why are the damselflies at the pond? Let's take a closer look!
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Before we jump into exploring 2 insects, let's first take a small look at the importance of a pond!
Ponds are calm bodies of water and are, in nature, crucial. They harbour an immense load of insects and other forms of living beings, all of which rely on each other. Many a food chain begins and turns around such waters. Many insects also rely on them to lay their eggs either on the surface or underwater. Whereas the young ones have to go through many stages of life while living in such a pond. This can take, on some occasions, years!
And now let's take a closer look at 2 unique insects living and breeding in this ecosystem called a pond!
Water striders, small yet long legged
They have many names, such as water skeeters and -skimmers, puddle flies, etc., but I like to use the name water strider. It makes them feel as unique as their ability truly is. The ability to walk and skip on water and with speeds up to 1m per second!
They live on calm waters, whether big lakes or ponds, and yes, even on puddles. They lay their eggs on submerged plants or rocks, where the young ones go through five instar stages in their nymphal forms.
They're generally small insects, yet their long legs make them appear very much bigger than they actually are! Some gerrid species even have wings, of which one reason is most likely a rougher body of water or one, which may dry out and they'd then have to search another place.
How do water striders run on water?
There are actually quite some factors allowing them to do this stunt, which to them, of course, is probably the most normal thing!
One of the factors is their ingenuity to use the surface tension of water with the help of their long legs, which are actually hydrophobic (repelling water). But it's also these legs that distribute their weight over a big area of the surface. On these long, strong yet flexible legs, they've got many small hairs repelling the water.
To avoid getting in any way wet, let's say of waves or rain, their whole body is actually also incredibly repellent, since it could cause them with the extra weight to sink deeper.
In the photo above, you can well see their legs, of which the middle ones have actually evolved fringe hairs, allowing them to thrust. Their hind legs allow the ability to steer. With this ingenuity and some physics, they manage to reach incredibly high speeds, shooting over the surface of the water—almost skating!
Water striders, life cycle and feeding in a pond
The females usually lay their eggs on aquatic vegetation or rocks. Once the small pond skaters hatch, they undergo something called an incomplete metamorphosis. Which means the young ones go through nymphal stages (in this case, 5 stages), in which they are tiny versions of their adult forms. In every stage they get bigger and resemble the adults more and more after every stage—until their final moulting.
Water striders are aquatic predators, eating dead or living insects. They have a fondness for the larvae of mosquitoes but enjoy whatever land insect falls into the pond. The gerrids are usually attracted by the small waves the trapped insects send over the surface with their movements.
Sometimes, just sometimes, when the population of water striders gets out of hand, these insects may fall back to cannibalism, where especially their nymphs might pick the shorter straw...
And now, let's check out another beautiful and fascinating insect living around your pond!
Damselfly - a closer look
They are similar to dragonflies, yet aren't quite the same. They are usually smaller and have slimmer bodies, with their eyes apart and their wings folded along their bodies. They usually enjoy living in fresh water and, like all dragonflies, are a sign of a good quality ecosystem!
Damselflies are mostly living in the region—or closeby—where they have hatched and evolved. But there are some species, who do like to let themselves be carried by the wind! Quite literally, actually.
Different species do have different requirements for their larvae to grow and evolve successfully. This means you can find damselflies in many different kinds of habitats, which can make it easier for you to determine what species it is or, like having been used in quite some occasions, as a bio indicator for the ecosystem.
But now let's get to the exciting stuff!
The life cycle of damselflies
Damselflies have partial metamorphosis, which means, in short, they don't have a pupal stage in their development, like, for example, the butterfly does. The female insects lay their eggs either in plant stems or on leaves, but can also make use of rotten wood or mud close to the surface of the water.
The larvae are called nymphs, and almost all of them are aquatic. These nymphs are actually quite aggressive predators and do like to hunt water fleas, mosquito larvae, or other small organisms.
These nymphs have to go through many moults (10–12 stages), where they keep on living underwater.
When they have fully developed, they climb out of the water, in that case the pond, and will search for a good place for their final moult.
After they've moulted, they appear like fully adult damseflies, with the only difference of their wings still being a little short and likewise so their abdomen. This will need a while until they'll be fully extended. Until then, the newly emerged damselflies are waiting. Like the one in the photo below!
Some fun facts you need to know about damselflies!
One of the fascinating facts about the Zygoptera is their past life, one may say. Long before we had been here, this order had already roamed the earth. Of course, as they're today around 7-8 cm long, they used to reach much bigger sizes back in the day (around 152 million years ago!), of which some might've been a meter in length!
Just imagine the sound they must've made! Apart from the fact that the Zygoptera are incredibly fast hunters, picking their prey off of grass stems or vegetation, making it quite a scary imagination, actually.
Another interesting fact about some of the damseflies is the male counterparts being brightly coloured. This is due to the fact that the Zygoptera have actually been observed having quite elaborate courtship behaviour!
Last but not least, something that I'd learnt very late in my life is the fact that larval stages can take up to 1 to 2 years of development (but there are some species with just a few months). Considering that many ponds do tend to dry up in the summer months, can be actually rather shocking!
Final conclusion
With this short article, I hope I was able to bring you a little closer to two interesting and common insects living around ponds or other bodies of water. One last thing I wanted to talk about is the importance of such animals.
In the case of the water strider, they're very important as predators specialising in eating land insects that have fallen into the pond (or any water). Not only do they help to keep the water clean, they're also favoured food for birds. Which means they return the nutrients eventually back to the land animals. Connections in ecosystems like such are incredibly crucial.
Damselflies have many different perks. They're very helpful in pest control (flies, mosquitoes, etc.), are also quite good pollinators, and help all in all to keep balance in the ecosystem, also with the fact that they are a very important food source for birds, fish, and other insects.
The next time you're going out next to a lake, a river, or a pond, do make sure to take a glance into the water to watch and see what you can spot, because these two insects are only a small piece of a massive puzzle!
Now get out there and discover!
Incredible shots! and wait, they eat mosquiotoes??? can I have water striders to get rid of mosquitoes :D