Strange bugs!

[Orphic Seth]

Rise and shine neighbors!

Waaaaaaaaay back in June, on one of my first Adirondack overnights, I was lounging around a high-altitude pond looking for wierdness, and boy, did I find some! In the water, climbing, wallowing, and moving around rocks and reeds were little 0.75" towering piles of hemlock needles, leaves, and sticks. This took me by surprise, and after a little poking and investigating I discovered that they were outer shells/homes for little bugs(?) walking around. I picked one up and the bug retracted into its house. Put it back, and it would come out and walk around. Very much like a hermit crab, except instead of a shell-shell, it was a leafy-shell. Some of them were pretty big and unbalanced looking, but they strode confidently around the sides of rocks and so on. Never seen these little dudes before, what are they?

 

[Pat T]

http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/ent425/compendium/caddis~1.html

Hi, Seth--Have you been wondering about this all summer?

What you saw might have been caddisfly larvae. Check out the above link.

Pat T

 

[Orphic Seth]

wo-ho!

The casing all the way on the right sort of looks like what I saw, this does make sense, it does!

And yes, I've been wondering about this all summer, but my internet access up here in the North Country is now quite limited, and the few times I got on here I forgot to ask...

 

[Chip]

neat, nature is always stranger than fiction;

"Caddisfly larvae, like this one belonging to the genus Oecetis, build cases by using silk to cement found materials together. They use these cases to aid respiration, as ballast to sink, as camouflage and as a pupal case."

 

[gaiagirl]

I got all excited about answering that one and Chip beat me to it!!! LOL ... I miss teaching so much i may need to take hostages ... heehee. I've never seen this particular species before. The typical species that are found in vernal pools tend to build little log cabin-like structures. The grassy material casings are somewhat unfamiliar to me, so thanks for the pics and the info . Gives me something to go research further.

 

[Chip]

Pat T deserves the research credit, I'm just good at GOOGLE'ing.

 

[ripple]

Caddis flys are members of the trichoptera family. They make up a large part of the benthic community in in most streams and smaller ponds. Some species use sand and tiny pepples to build their casing. Some jewelry makers put the larva in tanks that have a substrate of tiny semi precious stones. The larva then make their case using the stones. Once the larva develop and leave thier casing the jeweler makes necklaces and what not. They look really neat.

 

[Puck]

These guys are well known to anglers.

 

[Mr. X]

Have you ever seen the fresh water shrimp "Hellgrammites"? Also well known to anglers. They kinda look like the things they put in Checov's ear in "The Wrath of Khan".

 

[ripple]

Hellgramites turn into dobsonflies. That large winged bug with those huge "pinching type jaws". Man when those hellgramites bite it hurts!!!