Dragonfly Larvae Eating a Minnow
Have you read the breakthrough novel of the year? When you are done with that, try:
In Search of Sungudogo by Greg Laden, now in Kindle
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or Paperback
*Please note:
Links to books and other items on this page and elsewhere on Greg Ladens' blog may send you to Amazon, where I am a registered affiliate. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, which helps to fund this site.
Bug eats amphibian – that looks like a tadpole to me.
Anyone who has not read “Watchers at the pond”, consider this your wakeup call. Yes, it is nearly as old as I am (hardback version, November 1961), but it is a stunning book. Laden’s video immediately brought to mind, from decades ago, the description of a hummingbird captured by a praying mantis. Natural selection is not for the weak or sentimental.
That’s nothing. In Minnesota, I hear the mosquito larvae are big enough to eat small dogs.
are you sure the “victim” isn’t a tadpole? looks more tadpole than minnow to me…
looks like a tadpole to me too…
Tadpoles do not have gill plates. That is a fish.
What is probably incorrect is to say that it is a minnow. It is a fry or young something, not necessarily a minnow. And, it is not “bug” eats “fish” … the dragon fly is not a bug.
I don’t think it has gill plates. I think we are just seeing that the head has bony support and the body behind does not. If it is a fish, I have not seen its like before. Notice that it does not have pectoral nor pelvic fins. No, it is not a larval lamprey.
Greg, in some frog species the immature tadpoles (“hatchlings” being the correct term to use here…) do have transitional finger-like gills after they hatch as in this woodfrog. Wood frogs also have rather large gill slits relative to the size of their heads, so confusing them with other types of non-amphibian hatchlings isn’t that uncommon unless you’re somewhat familiar with them.
Sweet vid! Agree with others that that’s a tadpole. And to be technical, it’s a dragonfly nymph (or sometimes, naiad, to emphasize its aquatic stage), not a larva… 🙂
Is it a feature then?
Well, a tadpole is technically a fish until it transmogrifies into a frog.