After photographing this bug underneath the ice, i checked Peterson's Field Guide for Insects and found that this bug could be a Giant water Bug. Well i believe it, sounds true enough.
Please let me know if i am correct.
The little 'fishes' swimming around it, are not fishes, i always called them shrimp. According to the field guide that could be true too. I hope they are Fairy Shrimp (Anostraca).
The Giant Water Bug a Belostoma.
So much to learn.
First this morning i went to , where the water flows into 'moose skull lake'.
The first part definitely looks like a creek, but that is only 100 feet or so, then it becomes more like a wetland. Now i have already spoken about many wetlands around here. Today i am totally confused again what to name them; bog, marsh and now fen.
I would like to call this place 'barb's fen'. Remember my friend Jose, her name, (it's never simple) is Barbara. And her last name; van de Ven, ven meaning, you got it; fen.
An incredible area, which i have described in a few of last week's posts. I explored it some more for a ski trail, but past the first flat open spot it is very uneven to get to the next ones. And from the last one to get to a trail (which we tried, almost getting lost) is still a ways.
Nevertheless happy, i now return to the lake. The ice bubbling before i ski onto it.
There are all sort of sounds, cracking really. Today i am not too worried though. This is not a very deep lake as it is and the overflow frozen now. Even if i would fall through the overflow ice, underneath it will be another layer.
I am drawn to all the stars in the ice. It turns out most of them are frozen solid, like the one in the picture. I do find one with water. There are so many of those little shrimp, pale brown and pale orange, average 1 cm long. When i stir up the hole with my ski pole, they seem to increase in number. I can't get with my pole to the bottom of the lake. I kneel and try my hand; the ice i am on, seems only one inch thick, then there is an inch of water and then there is ice again, which seems at least 2 inches thick. There is a beautiful round little hole through it, too small for my hand. Through it i can clearly see the bottom of the lake, which is kind of a white mud. Now very excited i want to find a bigger hole. I found none, but did find this one with the water bug. In Peterson's book it says; they sometimes fly and are attracted to lights. Well this one definitely likes to hang around close to the opening (light). The lake is covered with snow except for these 'stars'. No luck for flying today, as his hole has clear ice covering it. Peterson also tells us; it bites!
