Wot I did at werk today

I had a rather lovely day today, as far as Mondays go. I got to hide in the lab almost all day, playing with bugs. I even managed to nab the swanky 'scope with the camera for a couple of hours this afternoon. SO of course I had to take a few happy-snaps of the little critters I'd been identifying. Yes, I know, geek.

Aquatic macroinvertebrates. Larval and adult insects found in freshwater habitats, visible to the naked eye (but only just in many cases). Occasionally it's my job to sort through samples and classify the little buggers to Family level (that's before you get to Genus and Species - the really nerdy people do that). The one above here is a fairly big one, maybe 15mm. It's the larva of a type of mayfly. They're predators, these guys, towards the top of the waterbug food chain.

This guy's another predator, even closer to the top of the food chain. It's a dragonfly larvae. He was about 20mm, though some species of dragonfly larvae will get up 50mm - the big cats of the bug world. They're fearsome hunters with funky hinged mouth-parts that they can swing out to grab onto their prey. Yet they grow into such lovely adults!

More bugs, including a close-up of that dragonfly jaw ( on the other side of the cut! )