Food goes in and waste is expelled through the same hole. Flatworms lack segments, guts and an anus. Flatworms are the simplest of animals that have bilateral symmetry (the right side and left side are mirror images of each other) and possess three basic cell layers. Below the ruler are 3 organisms (left to right): non-biting midge larvae (red), a tadpole, and an aquatic earthworm (red, looks like a thread).įlatworms belong to the phylum Platyhelminthes. While some of these were aquatic worms (Phylum: Annelida → Class: Oligochaeta → Order: Haplotaxida → Family: Naididae → Genus: Nais sp.) others of these were unidentified flatworms (Phylum: Platyhelminthes → Class: Turbellaria → various families).įlatworms from the class Turbellaria (white, 2 millimeters long) can be seen floating over the ruler below my thumb. This year, 2010, marks the year of the flatworm.Įven when the pond was covered with ice, small (2 millimeters), white organisms that look like floating threads were seen. Another year, mosquito larvae were in such abundance that I considered sampling them as an alternative protein source. A few years ago, we had a wet summer leading to an abundance of frogs, spring peepers calling well into fall. Animal species appear each year in a somewhat predictable sequence from the moment the ice melts.īut each year one or two categories of animals seem to dominate. Duckweed emerges in spring, covering the pond by summer’s start. It fills with rain and melted snow/ice each spring, drying out each fall.
As each year goes on, so changes the pond.
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