But not all beetles are fast movers: some can’t fly at all, or only when its unusually warm – so can’t easily move from one pond to another. So it might come as a bit of a shock to realise that there are more different kinds of these creatures living in freshwater – especially the flies – than any other kind of animal. Bugs are often very good fliers – so they’re usually some of the first creatures to arrive at new garden ponds.

Wiggly Jiggly - Pond Life from Deluxebase. Large super

For those interested in developing their wildlife identification skills, Lesser Water Boatmen are good place to start – once you get your microscope or hand lens eye in they have some nice easy characters to distinguish them. Flies and worms also get a bit of a bad reputation because as well as always being present in the nice ponds they can live in some pretty horrible looking places too. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience.

Water bugs aren’t just pond animals – rivers and streams may have backswimmers in the stiller, well-vegetated areas, and saucer bugs, water scorpions and occasionally water stick insects too. They’re not particularly sensitive to pollution: some can live in the most apparently inhospitable ponds including those with lots of bare polluted sediments and with no water plants. There are only two likely to seen in Britain, and by looking closely at them you can actually tell them apart quite easily: the common water slater ( Asellus aquaticus) has two white spots on its head, whereas the more uncommon, slightly classier, one-spotted water slater ( Asellus meridianus) has only one spot on its head. So take a closer look at pretty yellow and black stripy hoverflies as they dash over the pond and the delicate little non-biting midges with their feathery antennae that are some of the earliest colonists and the beautiful transparent larvae of the phantom cranefly.

Wiggly Jiggly - Space from Deluxebase. Large super squishy

The reason for their polluted water reputation is that in the early days of river pollution studies they were one of the survivors when sewage was discharged pretty much untreated into rivers. Added to this the tiny Lesser Backswimmer Plea leachii is smaller than virtually all other ‘lesser’ water boatmen.But this is such a diverse group of animals that you can find just about every possible different way of living amongst them: from docile grazers to fierce predators. It’s the common water slater that usually is found in garden ponds: we’ve never seen the one-spotted water slater in a garden pond, though given how little we know about garden ponds it wouldn’t be surprising to see it turn up. Water Wigglies have been a Play Visions staple for over 30 years strong with no end in sight, as we develop new styles every year. Water beetles are one of the most diverse groups in freshwater – in Britain there are around 350 species – but because they are the Little Brown Jobs of the freshwater world many people don’t realise quite how many different types there are. Although approximately half of the species of water bug recorded from ponds are different kinds of Lesser Water Boatmen, their sheer variety is sometimes not appreciated because they do all look quite similar.

Rhode Island Novelty Water Snake Wigglies - 4.5 inch Rhode Island Novelty Water Snake Wigglies - 4.5 inch

There’s nothing to really worry about if you don’t have them, and no special need to introduce them. This is because they naturally live in places where oxygen levels can be low – but there’s nothing unnatural about that in ponds, and in clean rivers they like the naturally silty places. The picture shows what is one of the commonest water beetles the Common Black Diving Beetle, Agabus bipustulatus, which is about 1 cm long.It is not difficult to attract Lesser Water boatmen and backswimmers to garden ponds: both the species of alkaline, base-rich water will turn up quickly. Many look a bit like the larvae of alderflies but often have two tails, and they lack the gills along the side of the body that are one of the distinguishing features of alderfly larvae.