Can
you identify what's in this photo?
Each Wednesday morning
on Camp Lutherlyn's Facebook page
the Lutherlyn Environmental
Education Program posts a photo.
Readers
have all morning and afternoon
to
make their best guess about what the photo is.
Around
6 pm LEEP provides the answer and a brief explanation.
Each
week's What is it Wednesday post
will
also be posted on the Nature of Lutherlyn blog,
after it is posted on Facebook,
sometimes
with additional bonus information.
In
addition to bringing you current editions of What is it Wednesday
on the
Nature of Lutherlyn blog,
we
will be reposting old editions,
creating
a What is it Wednesday archive.
This
photo was posted as a What is it Wednesday on.
And
the answer is....
Sometimes we post a What is it Wednesday picture of something
that also made us say “What is it?!” This is one of those instances.
This
strange creature, about an inch and a half long, was found swimming in the garden
pond at Terra Dei. With a little poking around in field guides and online we
were able to determine that it is the larva of a diving beetle.
While we don’t see the larva often, diving beetles are very
common in ponds and other slow-moving water. Diving beetles act like
scuba-divers – at the surface of the water they attach a bubble of air to the
underside of their abdomens, then breathe from that bubble of air while
swimming underwater. There are many species, of various sizes and color
patterns.
Diving beetles live in the water as both larvae and adults, but
because they can also fly, they can migrate from one body of water to another.
At LEEP we love continuing to learn! For more about how LEEP
can help you continue to learn about the world of nature around us, through
summer camp, school field trips, Saturday safaris, and more, check out www.lutherlyn.com/ee.
Like and follow Camp Lutherlyn on
Facebook, to see What is it Wednesday posts when
they come out and have the opportunity to share your guesses in the comments!
