Water Soldier

This week Graham and I were doing an invertebrate survey at Felmersham Gravel Pits in Beds. This was following up a survey last year by Peter Kirby doing a comparison of the invertebrates of Stratiotes-invaded and non-Stratiotes- invaded lakes. Stratiotes or Water Soldier is a free floating aquatic plant that is often found in garden ponds. It grows beneath the surface and the stiff leaves are spear-shaped and saw-edged and form a rosette - they look a bit like the top of a pineapple. As i fought my was through the willows and looked at the lake for the first time it looked as though i had stepped in the Amazon Basin. Very tropical!

We surveyed the previous 4 areas, 2 with Water soldier and two without. The first two areas were fantastic with a good number of notable and rare beetles. The photogenic Hydaticus tranversalis below was in the best numbers we have encountered.

There were also surprising numbers of Hydrochus elongatus and Hydrochus crenatus and these two amorous individuals were not even interuptable!

The Water Soldier invaded areas surprisingly still had a good number of species although they were mainly common species found. There was some thought that the fish were not present or breeding in there any more however i found two small tench so that should dispel that theory. It was a great habitat next to the River Ouse with Common spotted orchids well in flower and Banded Demoiselles fluttering above. A very pleasant sunny day and I am looking forward to going back in the autumn.