A little walk in the evening...

[Robert Nordsieck]

Hi there,

last wednesday I went for a walk, had a nice phone call and when I had to stop for a smoke, I met a little amber snail crossing my walking path. But I didn't have my camera with me.

Today I went the same way (rainy afternoon, means good snail evening) and exactly in the same place like last week there was that same amber snail, this time sitting in the bushes, all on its own...

Here it is, cute, isn't it?

Have a nice evening,
Robert

Attachments:

[ness]

Oh that's very cute.

Lovely to see it more than once. I imagine you'll be looking for it next time too?

[Robert Nordsieck]

Hi ness,

I certainly will. All those Arions are pretty boring ;D

[coyote]

Lovely little snail and great pic!

[Robert Nordsieck]

Hi there,

I did it again...! ;D And this time the camera was fully charged, so the pictures became much better...


Pictures: Robert Nordsieck (galerie.weichtiere.at)

I do not know the insect - is this a cricket?

Kind regards

[coyote]

Wow, beautiful pics! It's quite a sight to see the snail's heartbeat, isn't it?

Yes, that looks like a cricket to me. They have eardrums in their knees, or so I've read.

[Robert Nordsieck]

Hi,

Mica looked this cricket up for me, it appears to be a dark bush cricket (Pholidoptera griseoaptera). From the looks of it I would rather assume it's an Alpine bush cricket (Pholidoptera aptera), only that species is not found here (Westerwald mountains).

Anyway it was rather loud, almost split my eardrums when I was photographing the amber snail... Just as I write this: This is nonsense - the cricket appears to be a female (one can see the ovipositor), and the noise is made by the males, so probably there was another cricket "shouting" for this one or fencing off his patch...?

Regards
Robert

[coyote]

Yes, crickets can be surprisingly loud. There is one in my back yard that sings every night. I am glad it is only one!

I have yet to see this particular one, but if it is like the ones I saw last year, it is likely a tree cricket.

[Robert Nordsieck]

Hi there,

in the meantime I went back to where I had found the cricket, to collect some amber snails for Mica (which reached Berlin alive and well). I also saw another grasshopper and an interesting caterpillar looking like a punk with its many black hair. But sadly the camera went on the blink and I had to reformat the card

Well, I saw that anyway. And now I am in Lübeck, far away from all amber snails...

By the way: I found a nice movie about snails in the North German TV channel (NDR). Of course it is in German, but there are quite nice snail pictures: www1.ndr.de/mediathek/index.html?media=naturnah206

Kind regards
Robert

[coyote]

I had time to watch about half of that, and there are some wonderful pictures of snails (and slugs) there, as well as some lovely nature pictures too.

[ness]

Lovely video, though not being able to understand much German I can't comment on that side of things. Many beautiful small creatures on it, and the countryside is stunning
Oooh I like the spider shooting silk from its spinnerets

[slimeballsquidget]

Wow - that is a cute little amber snail And brilliant photo of the cricket

Will watch video later though as sorting out stuff .

Slimeballsquidget xx

[Robert Nordsieck]

Actually we have thought about what kind the amber snails may be, I myself have settled for Succinea putris, but Mica thought it may be Oxyloma elegans, because they are so small and also the shell form would correspond.



Zaz rather difficult...

[rosiesnail2]

Cute Can you et them in the UK. Its cute though!

[saki114]

lovely pic!!! so cute!