In this post, I'll show you some frogs and dragonflies I photographed in the area around the city of Pazin, about seventy kilometers north of where I live, in the central part of Istria. I stopped by a creek and started exploring that habitat a bit.
You'll see two species of frogs and two species of dragonflies. Yep, this should be a well-balanced post that could equaly appeal to those who are interested in insects and those who like amphibians.
The first species I'll tell a few words about is Pelophylax ridibundus, a frog from the Ranidae family, commonly known as the marsh frog or big green frog. This is the largest frog native to Europe and lives in all kinds of freshwater habitats, from small ponds to big rivers. Its meat is edible and quite tasty, if you ask me.
You'll see adults and small juvenile frogs in the photographs that I'll upload after I'm done with this text.
The second frog...I mean, the second frog species is Bufo bufo, a very common toad, commonly known as the common toad, European toad, or just toad. You'll see only an adult toad in this post.
This is one of the most common amphibians in Europe. This frog moves by walking; it rarely jumps. The common toad spends the day concealed in a hollow it has made under foliage, a root or a stone, where its colouring makes it hard to notice. It gets active at dusk and hunts in the dark of the night. The toad can slowly travel quite a distance in search of food. Its usual prey are woodlice, slugs, beetles, caterpillars, flies, ants, spiders, and earthworms, but it can also eat other meaty stuff if there's an oportunity; small mice, for example, can become the toad's dinner. It does not recognise its prey as such, but will try to consume any small, dark-coloured, moving object it encounters at night.
An amazing fact I came across today while preparing the post is that in 2007, researchers using a remotely operated underwater vehicle to survey Loch Ness, the famous monster-plagued lake, observed a common toad moving along the lake bed at a depth of approximately 99 meters. They were surprised to find that an air-breathing animal could survive in such a location. This sounds pretty crazy.
I mean, I saw toads resting submerged at the bottom of a shallow pond for very long times, so yeah, it makes sense...but 99 meters, that's really deep.
The toad in this post was photographed in the forest, while resting in a cozy shelter made of fallen leaves.
The first dragonfly species I wanna present to you is Sympetrum fonscolombii, commonly known as the red-veined darter.
The red-veined darter in the photographs is a female. Males have intensely red abdomens or are completely red. The color in females varies from slightly reddish, as seen here, to ochre, yellow, or greenish.
This is a very common species in central and southern Europe.
Sympetrum fonscolombii inhabits a wide range of habitats from small seasonal ponds and creeks to big lakes and rivers. It can recolonize dry areas after a rainfall, which regularly happens in my area, which doesn't have much permanent freshwater to offer.
The second dragonfly I have to offer today is commonly known as the green-eyed hook-tailed dragonfly. It's a very descriptive common name, that's for sure. The scientific name of the species is Onychogomphus forcipatus. This dragonfly is present in most of Europe...and not only in Europe. It can also be seen in North Africa and Western/Central parts of Asia. Its preferred habitat is rivers. Larvae dig and live buried in the muddy bottom.
And that's it. The post ends here. As always on Hive, the photographs are my work. I used the Canon EOS 350D camera with the Canon RF 100mm f/2.8 L IS MACRO lens and the Canon Macro Ring Lite MR-14 EXII to get these shots.