Edible Frog, green frog  (Rana esculenta)

They live on the bank of our pond. Green frogs hibernate in the mud at the bottom of ponds or ditches over the winter and wake up in spring, when the weather warms up. In this case in the pond.  
On the third photo a young frog in April.
They eat insects, but also larvae, slugs and worms.
Edible frogs and common frogs deposit their eggs in big lumps. Edible frogs are later (the end of May  to early June) First they eat a lot, when they are waked up.
Distribution: In Europe from the Mediterranean area to Southern Scandinavia. In the Netherlands the population has decreased.   
German: Teichfrosch  French: Grenouille verte

Common Toad (Bufo bufo) 

Family true toads or Bufonidae.You can read more about it on wikipedia. 
I was (11 March. 2007) working  at the compost heap, when I saw the common toad hidden in the heap. I have taken some photos, before the toad disappeared again in the heap. 
During the day you only see them  in the breeding season. Then the many smaller males are waiting for the females (March-April) They always return to the water in which they were born. The male toads also disturb the frogs.
In our neighbourhood males clamber onto the backs of females and they return together to the water. Now there have been constructed special tunnels under the road for these toads.
In the pond appear long strings of two-stranded eggs.
Than the adults leave the pond and hunt in the evening for food (ants, slugs, earthworms).They secrete a toxin, that makes them unpleasant to predators to eat.
The photo with the double string with eggs twisting around the vegetation has been taken on 1 April. The other on 2 April.
The little toad on the photo was born the year before.  

German: Echten Kröten  French: Crapaud commun

It was more difficult to take photos of gastropods, than I thought. Two slugs moved surprisingly fast in all directions. When  I had to load the accu, the other slug started also to move. I had put the snails back in the bucket for an other photo and had released the slugs on the compost heap.
Most gastropods are hermaphrodites, which means that each animal is both male and female.  When slugs have mated, both participants will later lay hundreds of eggs. Gastropods have a muscular foot which is used for moving. They secret a mucus or slime on which they glide.  The brown snail is a Chocolate Arion, Large Red Slug (Arion rufus). This slug gives me the most trouble. It eats even the cactuses with sharp spines. I see the large red slug also by day, when it is cloudy. On the photo it is in rest. Slugs, when attacked, can contract their body. The grey with dark spots is a Great Grey Slug, Great slug, Grey slug, Leopard slug ( Limax maxi sparrow) It has a hort keel on the rear end of the body It can grow to be as long as 20 cm. It ‘s feeding mostly on rotting plant matter and fungi. But I’ve read also on other slugs. They live for up to three years. The large slug is also a great grey slug. The green one is a  Yellow Slug (Limacus flavus)

The Yellow Slug was not to determine  from the photo with the other slugs. So I have made some photos of an other yellow slug. It is also a keeled slug, which has a yellow body with grey mottling, and pale blue tentacles. Length:10 cm. This species is strongly associated with human habitation, and is usually found in damp areas such as cellars, kitchens, and gardens, at night. I find them in the water meter box.

The snails are less aggressive in our garden. The large shell is of a Brown Garden Snail, Common Garden Snail (Cornu aspersum, Helix aspersa) That day, I only saw an empty shell. Strange, for mostly I find them everywhere. Perhaps because the dryness at that moment.  When conditions become too dry, the snail will retreat into its shell and seal the entrance with a parchment-like barrier known as an epiphragm, just like in the winter. Ten years.
The grove snail or brown-lipped snail (Cepaea nemoralis is closely related to the white-lipped snail (Cepaea hortensis) and shares  the same habitat. The grove snail is larger and has a dark brown lip to its shell in stead of a white lip.  But grove snails are  polymorphic in their shell colour and banding. White, yellow, pink, dark brown. Light and dark bandings. The bandings vary in number. So it is difficult to determine.
Control of Slugs and Snails: On and around the cactuses I use Escar-go. It causes slugs and snails to stop feeding and die within 3 to 6 days. It is not toxic and can be used around pets and wildlife. I no longer plant hostas. If I find gastropods on sensitive plants, I  put them on the compost heap. There they can eat. 
Other sensitive plants in the garden: Bear's Breeches, Spiderwort  (Spiderwort especially at the end of the bloom time), Golden groundsel,  White coneflower  For these plants I use sometimes (but not often) esgar-go. I no longer buy plants such as tagetes (or Marigolds) for the garden. I let as much as possible nature goes its own way.

Enemies: thrushes, beetles, moles, hedgehogs and mice.

This snail I photographed in June. I do not know how it came into the garden.
Because a Succinea putris lives in damp places. E.g. wet meadows and marshes.
This is a young snail. They be almost 2 cm. The name amber snails because the fragile,transparant, amber-colored shell. 

German: Gemeine Bernsteinschnecke  French: Ambrette commune

As you can see in the pictures, there is a clear difference between males and females of this light green grasshopper. The small ovipositor of the females curves upwards. The forewings are too small to fly.
Similar species are Barbitistes serricauda (larger) and the leptophyes albovittata (white stripes along the flanks)     
The sound they make is too high for human ears. 

Males 10 - 13 mm, females 13- 18 mm.
Across most of Europe.
June - October.

A light green grasshopper with a clear light yellow stripe from head to the backside of the body. The wings are very small. They don't fly. and don't jump. The male has a thread-like cerci. The female has a fairly long sword-shaped ovipositor.
It is a southern European species., most probably together with garden plants in the Netherlands ended. They can also tails with holidaymakers. Maybe Cheilosia caerulescens is spread by the sale of southern European garden plants. Or in the luggage of holidaymakers.
It feeds on small insects like aphids.

Males 11 - 13 mm, females 11 - 16 mm. August - November.

Photo female 17-10-2010 

Caddisflies It is a Glyphotaelius pellucidus. Order Trichoptera. 

This is a common species in Holland and is to recognize because of the notched outside edge of the forewing. In the Netherlands  are  177 species. The larvae prevent in the water and build a cocoon using materials such as silk, silt, small fragments of rock, sand, small pieces of twig, aquatic plants. I see them  oft  in the pond.
Each species has its own kind of cocoon. When the Caddisfly is ready to go into metamorphosis, it will seal itself inside it's cocoon. It emerges in four weeks as a pre-adult.  Then it will swim out of the water and shed one more skin before it's wings will be fully formed, and it's able to fly away.
Most adults are non-feeding. The female caddisfly will often lay eggs (enclosed in a gelatinous mass) by attaching them to the plants of the pond above or below the water surface.
Most species have long antennae.

    larva lacewing

Scorpion fly (Panorpa)  Family Mecoptera.

They have four wings.
The common scorpion flies do not like the sun. They are found on vegetation in damp, shaded places as hedgerows. (Panorpa vulgaris likes shaded and sunny places) They feed mainly dead insects, but they eat also insects like aphids, rotting fruit.
The name scorpion it has got, because the shape of the male genitalia, which is held forward above the abdomen like a scorpion's stinger  During the mating the female of the male gets a drop of saliva.
Look: example 1 with the explanation:  The a slightly enlarged inset highlights the notal organ, dorsally in the middle of the male's abdomen, that clamps the female wing to hold on. Traditionally this is believed to help in coercing mating duration (or 'rape' to begin with), especially when other resources (see below) are scarce and/or the male is starved, but Kock et al. (2009) challenge this functionality (?!)
and example 2    with the explanation: The male (left) provides a nuptial gift (dead arthropod mass) to the female before mating, the female (right) is here seen chewing it away while the male is seen producing a salivary mass to provide for her as a follow up.
Eggs are laid in soil. The larvae (caterpillar-like) live in the leaflitter. There is one generation a year.
Length: about 15 mm.  
German: Schnabelfliegen, Schnabelhafte  French: Mécoptères

In 1990 I have taken more photos. Arp Kruithof has determined these scorpion flies. Thanks Arp.

Two photos of Oscar two years later. (May 2009) His eyes are not well. He can't see much. But Oscar still loves the garden. Even when it is a half year ago, he has visit us, he has forgotten nothing.

On the bridge over the pond.
At the edge of the pond.