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Joined: Aug 2004
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Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
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Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
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Holding a redear sunfish is like running with scissors.
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Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 320
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First guess is a dragon fly rdy to molt. Got a full body shot?
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Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Hall of Fame 2014 Lunker
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Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Hall of Fame 2014 Lunker
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No question at all.....it's Theo.
Excerpt from Robert Crais' "The Monkey's Raincoat:" "She took another microscopic bite of her sandwich, then pushed it away. Maybe she absorbed nutrients from her surroundings."
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Joined: Mar 2004
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Lunker
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Could it be a Cicada shell?
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Joined: Aug 2006
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Pond Boss subscriber ever since I joined the forum. Thanks Bob!
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Moderator Hall of Fame 2014 Lunker
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Moderator Hall of Fame 2014 Lunker
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A Darner right. Here it is soon after birth. And here it is after Dr. Frankenbruce finishes with it -- an alternative means of transportation. :p
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Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
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Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
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Eric is right. It's a darner--nymph stage. Aeshnida Aeshna, no less. In laymen's terms, that a dang big baby dragonfly. I've apparently got tons of them in my pond. If you don't have a lot of fish reproduction, you get a lot of these. ...and then they get big and carry you away. Ooops, credit to h20fwlkillr as well! This is my source: http://pick4.pick.uga.edu/mp/20q?search=Aeshna+tuberculifera&guide=Anisoptera
Holding a redear sunfish is like running with scissors.
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Joined: Aug 2004
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Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
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Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
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Here's a quote from some text. I will provide the source if you wish.
"Dragonfly larvae are called naiads. Naiads of Green Darners are dark greenish-brown and will eventually grow two inches long.
Naiads are ferocious predators and will attack just about anything smaller than them, and even some creatures that are larger. They eat many aquatic insects, tadpoles, aquatic worms, and small fish. They also eat small animals that are washed into the water, such as earthworms.
Naiads will molt several times, shedding their outer shell and growing bigger each time. When they are ready for a final molt, the naiads crawl out of the water on a plant stem. Then they emerge from their shell as an adult".
Holding a redear sunfish is like running with scissors.
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Anybody ever hear them called "snake doctors"? Growing up in the Ozarks, the adults around me always called them "snake doctors"...I guess because of their egg laying activity. Always constantly kept me on guard for that snake they were "doctoring".
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"WordWeb online" makes the following comment on "snake doctor".
Slender-bodied non-stinging insect having iridescent wings that are outspread at rest; adults and nymphs feed on mosquitoes etc. - dragonfly, darning needle, devil's darning needle, sewing needle, snake feeder, mosquito hawk, skeeter hawk
Good job, ML. Very interesting.
Holding a redear sunfish is like running with scissors.
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Originally posted by Meadowlark: Anybody ever hear them called "snake doctors"? Growing up in the Ozarks, the adults around me always called them "snake doctors"...I guess because of their egg laying activity. Always constantly kept me on guard for that snake they were "doctoring". Growing up in Kentucky, we called them "snake feeders". The kids were afraid of them, and swatted them with sticks at every opportunity. We learn! When we wash my wife's dark blue car, we find plenty of dried up dragonfly eggs to scrub off. Her office is not far from a rice field, and the DF's apparently think the dark shiny paint is water. She often sees them dipping down and laying eggs on her car.
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Here's the one that I see all the time around my place. This is a green darner. Family: Aeshnidae Genus: Anax Species: Anax junius I would do anything possible to encourage their presence because their naiads make the biggest chunk of protein that a bluegill could ever want. Maybe we should discuss how to keep them around, but it appears that some vegetation, barely sticking out of the water is ideal egg laying habitat. This is a different species as the Aeshna naiad shown above, but mine look very, very much like this. I like the term snake doctor a lot better, so from here on out I'll be referring to him as that.
Holding a redear sunfish is like running with scissors.
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Joined: Jul 2005
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Bruce, I frequently see DF's laying eggs on floating FA mats and aquatic vegetation that has made it to the surface at our pond. All they need is a place to land where they can stick their tail in the water.
Let me know if you need some help getting a specific identification of any bug, my brother works for USDA in the entomolgy dept.
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Joined: Aug 2004
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Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
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I didn't know that! If Cody ever gets sick of me "bugging" him all the time, I'll have another resource. Ha!! :p
Holding a redear sunfish is like running with scissors.
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Ambassador Lunker
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Originally posted by Bruce Condello: ........ I've apparently got tons of them in my pond. If you don't have a lot of fish reproduction, you get a lot of these........ Bruce, do you mean yer all male pond? I had "tons" of both damsel and dragon flies from spring through early summer this year but have watched the numbers decrease dramatically over mid-late summer, dont know if its because of the million gams, or if its just the natural life cycles of the dragon flies??
GSF are people too!
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Joined: Jul 2005
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I was getting a few dragonfly nymphs when I was seining for small BG to train my SMB this last April and May. I made it a point to toss them in the SMB pen everytime I found a few in the net.
That reminds me, Monday night while was I tossing pellets out for the BG I had a 10" SMB swimming around with them, he wasn't interested in the pellets but he did stop all of a sudden about 10 feet from the dock, got semi-vertical, and then made a short dash, stopped, and then sucked something off the bottom and ate it. At the time I assumed it was a DF nymph that was crawling on the bottom.
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Joined: Aug 2004
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Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
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Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
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Originally posted by dave in el dorado ca: Bruce, do you mean yer all male pond?
Yes, sir.
Holding a redear sunfish is like running with scissors.
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