Minnow's Nightmare

[Tony T]

View 1 here:



is what the minnow sees about 5 secs before ......


View 2 here:




is what it sees a split second before the end
Face and extensible grabbing "jaws" of a dragonfly larva.

[MacroLuv]

Great shots. Didn't find dragonfly larva yet.

[rjlittlefield]

Oh, this brings back memories! I loved to rear these things as a child -- I remember they would sit clasping a stick, staring up at the water surface where tasty morsels would often drop onto the water. At least, that's what they did until too many morsels appeared too quickly. Then they would turn around and stare pointedly at the bottom until they got hungry again and switched back to looking up.

Tony, you got a nice shot of that labium extending and opening up. Live specimen?

BTW, anybody not familiar with this beast, there is a nice animation of how the mouthparts work, here.

--Rik

[beetleman]

I used to catch them with a net and put them in a jar also. It is amazing how different the larva can be between different species. great pictures Tony.