Pond insect

Silent Running

I have a shallow pond with loads of tadpoles in it. There's a lot of other life, including diving beetle larvae feasting on the poor tadpoles

Today I noticed what looked like a clump of old leaves, but it was moving! I fished it out and put it in a jar of water.

It's a load of layers of leaves and other matter, all in tightly glued together layers. There's a hole in the top where this insect keeps popping out. The insect looks a bit like a caterpillar, roughly that size too, and it never completely comes out of it's leaf cocoon. It has 4 legs and is brown for about 1 cm then is a cream colour.

Any help with ID? The thing is a bit camera shy too.

magicbastarder

caddis fly larva?

Silent Running

magicbastarder wrote: »

caddis fly larva?

Bingo! That's the little beastie.

Is it a good guy or a bad guy? What does it feed on? Is it safe to have it with the tadpoles?

Thanks for your help.

blackbox

Silent Running wrote: »

Bingo! That's the little beastie.

Is it a good guy or a bad guy? What does it feed on? Is it safe to have it with the tadpoles?

Thanks for your help.

Don't worry about things eating tadpoles. Each adult produces thousands every year. Only a tiny fraction of them survive to maturity. If they all survived we'd be over run.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Silent Running wrote: »

Bingo! That's the little beastie.

Is it a good guy or a bad guy? What does it feed on? Is it safe to have it with the tadpoles?

Thanks for your help.

Good guys in that they eat algae and debris but you have to stop thinking in terms of good and bad guys in a pond. This is nature and all play a role.

magicbastarder

to be fair, with all the invasive species we have - it's not a bad question to ask if something is where it shouldn't be (not that you'd find invasive crayfish or the like in a pond, but you get the gist...)