Large-mouthed Valve-snail

I've had a niggling back injury for the last week or so, but a combination of lifting a suitcase on Friday and going out and doing fieldwork yesterday made it much more painful. So today I was forced to take it relatively easy and avoid strenuous exercise - no great hardship on a predominantly damp and grey day.

Fortunately strong ibuprofen meant that I could intersperse working at the computer with cooking, so I've caught up with some data entry and made lots of goodies in preparation for friends coming over tomorrow - ragu for a lasagne, a chocolate praline cake for dessert, simnel cake and chicken satay pieces for a picnic.

The only subjects I've photographed were a leech and a water-snail that Pete brought back from recent sampling at Woodwalton Fen NNR. Both are rarities, and there appear to be very few photographs of the live creatures on the internet. The Large-mouthed Valve-snail Valvata macrostoma is a declining species with a very restricted distribution in Britain, found in a diminishing number of sites in the fenland basin (East Suffolk, East and West Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and South Lincolnshire), the Pevensey Levels (East Sussex), a few sites in the Somerset Levels and one or two sites in the Hampshire. It's included in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, which means that special conservation measures must be in place to maintain and enhance its population.

The shell is only a few millimetres across, which made it quite difficult to capture a decent image. I think it looks rather cute in this view - you can see its eyes, antennae, trunk-like nose and bifurcate foot, as well as the siphon and gills that enable it to breathe underwater. It may not be the prettiest of images for Easter Sunday, but I'll bet it's one of the most unusual!

Happy Easter everyone!