General News
28 February, 2024
A chance to connect with your local waterways in Timboon
WHEN Heytesbury District Landcare Network (HDLN) project officer Kate Leslie’s family who live in Melbourne and Sydney visit Timboon, a common request for an afternoon’s activity is to dip a net in the dam and look closely at the water bugs.
“I just get a bucket of water with lots of bugs in it, and the kids go through it and separate out the different types into ice cube tray cells,” she said.
On their visit earlier this year Ms Leslie’s eight and nine-year old nieces, Ivy and Isla, did just that.
Among the familiar bugs such as backswimmers, boatmen and damselfly larvae, there was an unusual critter.
After her family left for home, Ms Leslie posted its photo to a citizen science platform iNaturalist.
Just one minute later the bug had been identified by an aquatic ecologist at Florida International University as the Giant Water Bug (Diplonychus eques).
Large individuals will even attack small frogs and fish. The female must lay her eggs on the back of the male to stop him eating them all.
“It’s been described as top of the food chain, so it seems unlikely there’d be many individuals in our dam,” Ms Leslie said.
“We were lucky it was in our sample.
“Given it can bite, we think we are very lucky to still have Ivy, now we realise she single-handedly caught this ‘Lion of the water body’, cornered it in an ice cube tray cell and eventually released it back into the wild.”
Ms Leslie has more than 750 sightings logged in iNaturalist but the Giant Water Bug is one of her stand outs.
“There’s only 160 sightings of it recorded in iNaturalist in the whole world,” she said.
“And at only eight years old, Ivy is proud of her scientific finding and has put Timboon on the map.”
Citizen science though platforms like iNaturalist provides experts with extra eyes on the ground. Members of the public can take a photo of something interesting they've seen, and the program creates an observation using GPS data and the time and date.
Every observation in iNaturalist can contribute to biodiversity science, from the rarest butterfly to the most common backyard weed.
To celebrate World Wildlife Day, HDLN will be taking a close look at the wildlife in Powers Creek Reserve, Timboon on Monday, March 4 between 11am and noon.
An array of tools such as binoculars and magnifiers will be on hand to help get a close look.
Also available will be HDLN’s free booklet, 'Gardens For Wildlife' on how to help and attract wildlife in the garden.
Ms Leslie encouraged residents to attend the session.
“Our fabulous area is understudied by science,” she said.
“It’s so exciting to provide the experts with observations.
“We would love people to come along.”