The Stream's Hidden Treasures

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As I pull up my waders and grab my D-net, I’m wondering what insects are lurking in the crooks and crannies of the stream in front of me. The stream is hidden in the middle of a forest and has many shrubs and trees growing around it. I anticipate that many midges (Diptera) will be found along with an occasional mayfly (Ephemeroptera) and caddisfly (Trichoptera). I slowly step down into the water and use my net as a crutch because the last thing I want to do is fall face first into the stream. The water reaches my mid-thigh, and I can feel the cold water as I begin scraping the bottom of the stream with my net. 

When I bring up the net to my face to inspect for insects, I become disappointed because I don’t see any critters. But then I take a closer look and see multiple tiny insects squirming around in the mesh. I cautiously pick them out of the net, being careful not to squash them, and set them aside in a bucket. 

The hunt for aquatic insects continues for about ten minutes, and I baffled at all that I am catching. My bucket is teeming with insects so I head towards the bank to do some further inspection. The contents of the bucket are dumped into a long, thin container resting on a table which makes the insects easier to spot. An abundance of mayflies are picked out along with multiple caddisflies still in their case and some midge larvae. Lastly, I see a couple water striders (Hemiptera) zig-zagging on the surface of the water and quickly catch them with my D-net. 



                                                         Photo taken from my iPhone

Mayflies can be contrasted from other aquatic insects such as stoneflies and caddisflies because they normally have three cerci while stoneflies normally have two cerci (Eaton et al., 2007). After about forty-five minutes of inspecting the contents of our buckets, the class moves to the next location. The second stream was located off the side of a road and wasn’t as deep as the first stream. It didn’t have as much vegetation on the left side compared to the first stream; however, it had more stones lining the bank. I instantly walked through the water to the stones in the shallow parts and flipped one over. To my excitement, a couple stoneflies (Plecoptera) were attached.


                                                            (Alamy Ltd., 2019)

I kept flipping over rocks and kept finding more and more stoneflies. I found about seven stoneflies and then moved to the middle of the stream to see if I could find different macroinvertebrates. I disturbed the sediment by twisting my feet in the rocks, and I held my net behind me to catch the insects that drifted downstream. I discovered more mayflies. I did not, however, find any caddisflies or water striders at the second stream. 

Sampling in the streams was fun because not only did I get to see what is lurking in the crevices of streams, but I also had the opportunity to see macroinvertebrates that I don’t commonly see when I am exploring nature. Mayflies, stoneflies, caddisflies, water striders, and midge larvae all play an important role in stream biodiversity and are crucial indictors of a high-quality stream. If the class would have only found one species of macroinvertebrates, we could conclude the stream we were sampling from was a low-quality stream because of the low biodiversity of insects. 

Bibliography

Alamy Ltd. (2019, May 27). Stonefly Nymph Stock Photos and Images. Retrieved May 27, 2019, from https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/stonefly-nymph.html

Eaton, E. R., Bowers, R., & Kaufman, K. (2007). Kaufman field guide to insects of North America. New York: Houghton Mifflin.



Links

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo/stonefly-nymph.html

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