Skating away on the thin ice of a new day...

Here I am backblipping again as we were out last night seeing Mark Steel's excellent live show at the Stirling Tolbooth. This is a photo of something I've been hoping to blip for sometime, namely a pondskater. It was in among the tall emergent vegetation on the pond on the business park where I work. Pondskaters are bugs (in the entomological sense, rather than the US name for all insects) from the Order Hemiptera. They are specialised predators, adapted to live balanced on the surface tension of the water's surface of ponds, lakes, lochs and other pools. They detect insect prey stranded on the surface from the vibrations they make. I've always loved to watch them. They interact with one another in little territorial disputes. The identity of this one confused me for a while but I think it is a juvenile (nymph/ instar) of the Common Pondskater (Gerris lacustris). And in case you think it isn't the sharpest photo I've ever posted, in mitigation, the beasty is 3-4mm long and I took the photo on my phone camera!