Field Guide

Fishfly larvae look a lot like their cousins the hellgrammites, but they lack cottony or hairy gill tufts along the abdomen, and they have 2 short, fleshy tails at the hind tip.

Alderfly larvae look a lot like their cousins the fishflies, but instead of having pairs of fleshy tails, they have only a single tail pointing straight back.

The aquatic larvae of caddisflies are famous for building portable, protective cases out of local materials, including grains of sand, bits of leaves and twigs, and other debris. The adults are mothlike.

Tubificid worms, as a group, include the tubifex worms that aquarists feed to their pet fish. These segmented worms are related to earthworms and like them are detritus eaters.

Riffle beetles live underwater, in shallow, swift-flowing streams, as both adults and larvae. The larvae are elongated, multi-segmented, and rather hard and stiff; they reach about ½ inch long. The adults, the size of small ants, are oval with long legs.

Clam shrimp have their carapace shaped like a pair of clam shells and they can close it tightly when disturbed. But they are not clams: they have tiny, jointed shrimplike legs and bristly, feathery antennae.