Re: [vernalpool] Leeches on dragonfly larvae and beetle

Hello Eileen
I got invited into your Yahoo group about two years ago, most likely unbeknownst to the entire group. I'm a vernal ponds fan much like the rest of you, only perhaps farther north, in Northeast Massachusetts. I've written about vernal ponds for a few newspapers up here and am always on the look out for fresh news. The reason I write is to ask you not to take umbrage at the use of this group's posting for publication. It's a wonderful, granular source of real time information that is of interest to many and could be a vital resource for experts in a position to act upon it. This is great stuff. Sharing it can only help the very cause that has us all involved. Thank you.

----- Original Message -----
From: Eileen
To: vernalpool@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, July 02, 2012 7:59 AM
Subject: Re: [vernalpool] Leeches on dragonfly larvae and beetle

Hi all,

I did a google search on this topic trying to hunt down some more information and by golly I found my and Matt's posting on another yahoo group http://ecologynewsworld.blogspot.com/2012/06/re-vernalpool-leeches-on-dragonfly.html.

What's the scoop? Anyone know anything about this blogspot? And just how does it instantly hook into our yahoo group? Yahoo isn't remotely secure, but this is taking it up a new level. I do not like this at all as it means non-group members have access to all of our emails for anyone who posts a comment.

Eileen

--- mattburne@gmail.com wrote:

From: matt burne <mattburne@gmail.com>
To: vernalpool@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [vernalpool] Leeches on dragonfly larvae and beetle
Date: Sat, 30 Jun 2012 07:42:06 -0400

Ahhh... No. Interesting, though! How little we know...

Matt

On Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 4:11 PM, atoz04 <ottertrk95@buckeye-express.com>wrote:

> **
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> Two weeks ago was our yearly night monitoring at a vernal pool and we
> found something very unexpected. First, there were many more leeches active
> than normal. Second, we found four leeches "hitch-hiking" on dragonfly
> larvae and a predaceous diving beetle. The latter initally just had one
> leech on it, but in the next half hour a second one latched on.
>
> I've uploaded pictures of this to the photos section with the same title
> as this message subject. The pictures could be better, but this was flash
> photography at night.
>
> I'm at a loss to explain this. A local naturalist showed the pictures
> during a state-wide Odonata conference and there was deep silence from all
> the participants - none of them had ever seen this before.
>
> It's a very large vernal pool and even with the drought there is still 2-3
> feet of water in the pool, so it's not a case of the leeches wanting to
> find another pool.
>
> I've been running a 5-8 month vernal pool survey for 9 years and i've
> never seen this before. Have any of you? Ever heard of it before? Any help
> or comments would be most welcome!
>
> Eileen
>
>
>

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