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#freshwater invertebrates
dougdimmadodo · 10 days
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Acute Bladder Snail (Physella acuta)
Family: Bladder Snail Family (Physidae)
IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern
A common resident of ponds, lakes and streams across much of Europe and North America, the Acute Bladder Snail spends the vast majority of its life underwater but can only extract oxygen from air, so must regularly climb to the surface to re-fill an air-filled bladder within its shell (earning it its name.) Hardy and fecund, members of this species feed on aquatic plants, algae and detritus and rely on their curled shells for protection against their many predators, which include numerous small fish, freshwater turtles, non-parasitic leeches and larger carnivorous snails - should a predator grasp or bite them, Acute Bladder Snails are capable of using a unique muscle to furiously waggle their shell in an attempt to shake them off before detaching from the surface they are attached to and attempting to sink to safety. Like most gastropods Acute Bladder Snails are hermaphrodites (with every individual producing both sperm and eggs) and are capable of fertilizing their own eggs, although where possible they show a preference for mating with other members of their species instead (likely because self-fertilization reduces the health and fitness of offspring due to a lack of genetic diversity.) Following mating, members of this species lay dense clusters of tiny eggs covered by protective gelatinous sacs, which they typically attach to the stems or leaves of aquatic vegetation.
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writheworm · 5 months
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aquatic animal illustrations for friends
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uncharismatic-fauna · 2 months
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Uncharismatic Fact of the Day
For sessile invertebrates like mussels, getting around can be quite hard. Fortunately, many freshwater species have a very special solution: following fertilization, adults string out their larvae on special lures called super-conglutinates. These lures resemble small fish which, just like a fisherman's lure, entice larger fish to come in for a bite. The larvae attach themselves to the fish's gills and get a free ride to their new habitat!
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(Image: A plain pocketbook mussel (Lampsilis cardium) displaying its fishy super-conglutinate lure by Ryan Haggerty)
If you like what I do, consider leaving a tip or buying me a kofi!
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bethanythebogwitch · 8 months
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I helped with a study of local freshwater mussels today. They're doing transect studies of the river and tagging and releasing the mussels they find. Later they come back and do it again to see where the mussels are moving to over the course of 10 years.
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They glued stickers to a mussel and called it science
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These are called heel splitters. That's not even the biggest one we found
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I know the big oblong one in the middle is called a pistol grip and the green warty ones are pimplebacks, but I don't know how to ID the rest
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They can live for decades and are parasites as juveniles. I should do a Wet Beast Wednesday post on mussels because there's some interesting stuff about them
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thedisablednaturalist · 6 months
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I've applied to SERC 5 times now and still haven't even gotten an interview. I exceed the qualifications and I should have priority since I was trained by the Smithsonian. Are the other people applying super geniuses?? Literally its research technician positions and internships. I have over a year's experience as a field tech not including my academic experience. I'm tempted to email the lab manager and ask what training I need for her to hire me.
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vintagewildlife · 1 month
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Snails in the now dried-up Lake Hula By: Peter Merom From: Natural History Magazine 1962
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vaurien · 1 year
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Very Important Crabs
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Freshwater Pom Pom Crab
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Red Devil Vampire Crab
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Vampire Crab
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Mandarin Vampire Crab
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Rainbow Vampire Crab
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Orchid Vampire Crab
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Tomato Vampire Crab
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Halloween Vampire Crab
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Purple Vampire Crab
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White Mandarin Vampire Crab
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Golden Eye Vampire Crab
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pile-of-bugs · 2 years
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Check out this little dude. This is a whirligig beetle!
They get their name (i think) from the way they love to rapidly swim around in circles. They're a common sight on the shores of any freshwater pond or lake in the Summer.
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Their sleek, streamlined design serves a similar purpose as in diving beetles - to make them hydrodynamic (faster in the water). And they are quite fast swimmers! You'd be hard pressed to catch one without a net.
Here's a couple of them swimming! Look at that stroke! Little Olympic contenders! They even have a little "paddle" on their rear that helps them push through the water!
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Their speed is mostly for evading predators. Their food sources aren't very fast - consisting mostly of water mites, snails, and small insect larvae. These guys, like dragonfly nymphs, help cut down on mosquito larvae, making them very beneficial!
But above all, I think the coolest thing about whirligig beetles is this:
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Look closely - these beetles have FOUR EYES. Now, having more than 2 eyes is actually pretty common in the insect world. Many have 3 or more eyes. However, these "extra" eyes are usually small ocelli, or "simple eyes" that can't do much besides sensing the relative light level throughout the day.
Whirligig beetles have 4, real-deal, massive compound eyes that give them excellent vision. But why 4? It has to do with the fact that whirligigs swim on the exact surface of the water! Two of their eyes look above for predators, while the two on the bottom search for prey (and for other predators)!
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(image source: National Geographic)
This amazing adaptation is similar to the four-eyed fish. It only has 2 eyes, but each one has two pupils, giving it the same ability as the whirligig beetle!
Next time you're near a freshwater shore, look for these cool little swimmers. The beetles themselves might be a little tough to spot, but the swirling of water and subsequent ripples they make will make it obvious when they're around.
Hope you enjoyed these tid-bits about these bugs! It goes to show that even common insects can have mesmerizingly cool traits of their own!
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lake-lady · 2 years
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Microscope montage 🔬🐚🪱🦐🌊
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nanojungle · 5 months
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The amanos and cherries are lazily picking the fry food off the surface tension.
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wickedsrest-rp · 9 months
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NAME: Clinger
ALSO KNOWN AS: Hugger, Ticktack
RARITY: ★☆☆☆☆
THREAT LEVEL: ★★☆☆☆ | Variable; some can kill, others cause illness. Commonplace, but readily dealt with by anyone.
HABITAT: Typically found in heavily wooded environments, like the forests around Wicked’s Rest, but can also be found in wetland areas, on farms, or even just in the Common.
DESCRIPTION: It isn’t just the regular ticks you need to watch out for in Wicked’s Rest. The area has a species called, aptly, clingers. And while normal ticks are content taking a little blood and being on their merry way (while possibly transmitting disease), clingers can cause bigger problems. They slightly resemble larger-than-average normal ticks. However, when engorged, they balloon to the size of a tennis ball and must be manually removed. This is quite painful. Beyond what clingers subsist on and the infections they spread, they don’t have any supernatural abilities and weaknesses. By most accounts, they’re similar to ordinary ticks. 
There are a few different subspecies to watch out for, only distinguishable via dissection and examination from an expert unless they’re on their specific and chosen food source.
OTHER VARIANTS:
Bloodclinger: Your classic blood-feeding tick, with a side of additional unpleasantness. Those who are fed on by bloodclingers develop an appetite for blood themselves, which can last a few weeks. This usually goes beyond just developing a taste for it – once symptoms fully set in, those affected can be stirred into a frenzy at the sight of blood, only calming down once they’re drinking it.
Dearclinger: Rather than blood, dearclingers engorge themselves on any supernatural abilities someone has. Though these abilities will eventually return, it can take a few weeks. In rare cases, a person might not get all of their supernatural skills back, or they might work slightly differently than before which can be difficult to adjust to. Some assume people simply mean “deer tick” when they say dearclinger.
Deadclinger: And the existence of deadclingers further confuses things. These clingers latch on to the undead, drinking the blood, flesh, or other source of nutrition that the undead themselves feed on. This causes the undead to become starved. Deadclingers can be removed by passing them on to another undead – spawn and reanimated corpses can work if you can manage to get close enough. They’ll make the jump without prompting.
Faeclinger: A subspecies that evolved to feed on the iron-less blood of fae; these ticks aren’t able to feed on any other species. Those bitten often lose control of their natural abilities and glamours for a few weeks, though in rare cases it can be prolonged. Faeclingers can also cause fevers of variable intensity. They need to be burned off the fae with iron, which is obviously painful for the fae too. Fortunately, not a lot of it is needed.
WEAKNESS: Bug spray, especially sprays with a high percentage of DEET, usually do a good job of keeping clingers away. When they’re not clinging and engorged, they can be squashed, burned, or killed any way that a mundane tick would be.
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rillette · 1 year
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Please elaborate on bug exam
Bug exam (exam on bugs)
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Uncharismatic Fact of the Day
Zebra mussels are small, but they have big appetites! An individual no larger than 6 cm (2 in) long can filter an entire litre (0.26 gal) of water in a single day! Dreissena polymorpha collects plankton and detritus to feed on, and keeps the water column clean so sunlight can encourage the growth of aquatic vegetation.
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(Image: A collectionof zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha) by Dr. David Jude)
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bethanythebogwitch · 29 days
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Wet Beast Wednesday: aquatic insect larvae
This Wet Beast Wednesday is going to be different than usual. Instead of an in-depth overview of a specific species or group of species, I'm going to give a general overview of aquatic insect larvae as a whole and then showcase some groups of insects. I'm going to focus on insects that have an aquatic larval stage and terrestrial adult stage, saving adult aquatic insects for another post.
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(Image ID: a group of mosquito larvae. They are yellowish bugs with long, slender bodies, no visible limbs, small heads, and feathery appendages from their rear ends. From the back of the abdomen, a snorkel-like appeadage attaches to the surface of the water, using surface tension to allow the larvae to hang from the surface. End ID)
Insects are basically the most successful group of animals in the history of life on Earth and have adapted to live in just about every terrestrial habitat. It should not be much of a surprise than that they have also moved into the water. More specifically, fresh water as almost all aquatic insects inhabit fresh or maybe brackish water. Only the water strider genus Halobates are truly marine. Some species of insect are aquatic for their entire lives, some are primarily terrestrial but able to swim, and some are aquatic only for their larval stage of life. These aquatic larvae species are generally agreed to have evolved from fully terrestrial ancestors. The adaptation of partially returning to the water has evolved independently many times in many different clades of insect and so different species use different strategies and adaptations. It is possible that aquatic larvae evolved in response to high competition for resources on land. If multiple species are competing over the same resources during their larval stages but one of those species manages to adapt to a whole new environment, that species will now have abundant access to resources the other species are unable to get to. Because of the very different lifestyles required for aquatic and terrestrial animals, aquatic larvae often look very different than their adult forms.
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(Image: an aquatic beetle larva. It looks nothing like an adult beetle, instead being a long, slender insect with no wings, multiple body segments, and two hairy appendages at the base of the abdomen. End ID)
Aquatic larvae serve important roles in their ecosystems. Many are herbivores or detritivores that consume algae and bits of biological material, helping recycle nutrients and clean the water. Some are predators that hunt smaller invertebrates or plankton. Importantly, aquatic insect larvae provide a major food source for larger fish, invertebrates, birds, and so on. Some species can be considered keystone species, vital to their ecosystems. Many species are highly sensitive to changes in their environment, allowing them to act as indicator species for the health of their ecosystems. The trio of mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies are very commonly used as indicators of pollution as all three are highly sensitive to pollutants. A stream with few mayflies, stoneflies, or caddisflies but plenty of less sensitive species is likely to be polluted.
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(Image ID: a collage of aquatic larvae of multiple species in the order Diptera (true flies. They vary from slug-like to having multiple distinct body segments with legs, to looking like maggots with long tails. End ID. Source)
Mayflies (order Ephemeroptera) are among the oldest lineages of winged insects, bearing traits that they first flying insect also had. Juvenile mayflies are technically not larvae, but nymphs. The difference between a larva and a nymph is that nymphs look much more like the adult stage than larvae do. Mayfly nymphs lack the wings of adults, but have external gills growing from the sides of their abdomens. Mayfly nymphs can be identified by three appendages called cerci that emerge from the back of the abdomen. They are bottom-dwellers that typically live under rocks and other objects or amid plants. Most are herbivores, feeding mainly on algae. Months to years after hatching (species dependent), mayflies will float to the surface and go through a molt to a stage called the subimago. Uniquely among insects, mayflies go through two final winged molts. The first is to a not sexually mature stage called the subimago, then they quickly molt again into a fully mature imago stage. These molts happen in sync, resulting in hundreds to thousands of mayflies appearing all at once and swarming together to mate. Famously, adult mayflies exist only to mate and die. Their digestive systems are non-functional and few species last past a few days.
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(Image: a mayfly nymph on a rock. It is a yellow bug with no wings, a long abdomen, and thick, grasping legs. Three long, hairy cerci emerge from the back. Along the side of the abdomen are multiple pairs of white, feathery gills. End ID)
Stoneflies (order Plecoptera) also have nymphs and can be quite difficult to tell apart from mayfly nymphs if you don't know what to look for. One of the biggest differences is that their gills are located by the base of the legs rather than along the abdomen. Like mayflies, stoneflies are some of the most primitive winged insects, but mayflies are Paleopterans (the earliest wings insects) while stoneflies and most other winged insects are Neopterans. The main difference is that Neopterans can flex their wings over their abdomens while Paleopterans cannot, and must hold their wings either out to the side or up in the air. Like with Mayflies, many adult stoneflies have nonfunctional digestive systems and exist only to mate and die.
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(Image: a stonefly larva. It looks similar to a mayfly larva, but has a shorter abdomen, gills along the base of the legs, and only two cerci. End ID)
Caddisflies (order tricoptera) are the builders of the aquatic insect world. These larvae (most species anyway) can produce silk from glands near their mouths. These are used to make a variety of structures made from silk and various other materials including sand, silt, plant parts, shells, rock, and so on. Different species will seek out specific materials for their structures. There are a few types of structures, the most common of which is a tubular case that is open at both ends. The larva can carry the case with it as it crawls around and can retreat into the case for protection. The larva can draw water into one end of the case and out the other, allowing oxygenated water to flow over the gills. By moving around in the case, the larva can draw in more water. This allows the larvae to survive in water that is too oxygen-poor for other larvae. Other species build different structures including turtle-shell like domes or stationary retreats. My favorite structures are nets built with an open end into current. The current naturally brings detritus and micro-invertebrates into the net, where the larva can eat them. Caddisflies also pupate into pupa that have mandibles to cut their way out of their cases and swimming legs. Once developed, the pupae swim to the surface and molt into their adult forms. This molting is synchronized to ensure the adults emerge in swarms and can easily find mates.
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(Image ID: a caddisfly larva in its case. The case is a tube composed of pebbles of different colors stuck together with silk. The head and legs of the larva are merging from the front of the case. End ID)
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(Image: a caddisfly net. It is a structure made of silk shaped like a tube that is wide at one end and tapers toward the other. It is curved so both ends face the same way. End ID)
The order Megaloptera consists of alderflies, dobsonflies, and fishflies. All three have aquatic larvae, but their eggs are laid on land. Most species lad their eggs on plants overhanging the water so the larvae fall in once hatched, though a few lay eggs near the water's edge, forcing the larvae to crawl in. Meglaoptera have the least amount of differences between larva and adult of all holometabolous (pupa-forming) insects. The largest differences between the larvae and adults is the larvae lack wings and some species have leg-like prolegs. All species are carnivorous as larvae and feed on other invertebrates.
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The adults don't look any less creepy
(Image: two hellgrammites, the larval form of a dobsonfly. It looks somewhat like a centipede with three pairs of limbs and a long abdomen with multiple pairs of leg-like prolegs. The head has no visible antennae, but does have a pair of powerful pincers. End ID)
Order Odonata consists of dragonflies and damselflies. These are powerful predators both as nymphs and adults. As nymphs, the juveniles are shorter and stockier than the adults, with no wings. The nymphs (or naiads) breathe through gills. In damselflies, these gills can be external, but dragonfly nymphs have their gills located in the anus. Damselflies can swim by undulating their gills, but dragonfly nymphs are restricted to crawling. The nymphs are voracious predators that will feed on anything they can catch. Most of their diet consists of invertebrates, but they will also attack small fish, tadpoles, and even salamanders.
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(Image ID: a dragonfly larva on a rock. Its head is similar to that of the adults, but the abdomen is much shorter and broader and the legs are longer. It has no wings and is brown all over. End ID)
The groups of insects I covered today (plus the stoneflies) all have exclusively or near-exclusively have aquatic larvae while the adults are terrestrial. In other groups, aquatic larvae may be present in some species while others have terrestrial larvae. For example, a great many members of the order Diptera (true flies) have aquatic larvae including all mosquitos, while other members of the order have fully terrestrial larvae. In addition there are species of beetle (order Coleoptera), moth (order Lepidoptera), lacewing (order Neuroptera), and scorpionflies (order Mecoptera) that have aquatic larvae and some species of the true bugs (order Hemiptera) have aquatic larvae and aquatic adults, including water skaters, water scorpions, and giant water bugs. Aquatic insects are so prevalent that it is rare to find any lasting body of water that doesn't host some aquatic larvae or adults. Even incredibly stagnant and filthy water can host aquatic insect larvae, as shown by the notorious rat-tailed maggots, who love stagnant water and breathe through snorkels. Many species require very specific conditions and there are species of insect who exclusively grow their larvae in specific streams or lakes. Because of this, conservation of these bodies of water is vital to their survival and pollution, damming, and other factors can destroy whole species.
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(Image: an aquatic moth larva. It looks very similar to a green land caterpillar, with none of the fancy elements many land species have. It is translucent and wrapped around some aquatic plant stems. End ID)
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fyresnow · 1 year
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~ SnowAfterFyre . redbubble . com ~
Got around to making a redbubble account! I’ve started by uploading some shrimpies! I’m super super super excited to share them, I think the shrimps are really cute.
You can get them individually or in sticker packs (the first two pics- they come with driftwood, a marimo moss ball, and bubbles so you can arrange them as you’d like!) If there’s any other shrimp you want to see let me know! I’m also working on a tiling design with a bunch of aquatic plants that have shrimps on them. Follow my shop to see it when it’s complete!
In the top picture are caridina shrimp- blue bolt, golden bee, crystal red, and crystal black.
In the middle picture are neocaridina shrimp- cherry red, blue dream, jade green, and yellow.
In the bottom picture (from top to bottom then left to right)- trans, genderfluid, genderqueer, nonbinary, aromantic, asexual, gay rainbow, pansexual, lesbian (orange and pink), and bisexual.
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thedisablednaturalist · 3 months
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This is a long shot but if someone can save me a few hours worth of research I'd be super grateful
I am a field technician doing stream monitoring and my local county department is developing a more detailed assessment method using family-level pollution tolerances rather than the more commonly used method of sorting specimens into either Philopotamidae vs. Hydropsychidae. Through my research I've found that tolerance varies between members of the same family, and it is useful to also be aware of genus-level tolerances. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a good reference for many genera (except for macroinvertebrates.org, love that site) I also don't have access to paywalled research papers and have been stuck with looking through old government reports and open-source journals. Is anyone willing to share a good paper/report/website with me that includes any information available for Trichoptera (and any other macroinvertebrate order) genera-level tolerance values?
(I tried posting on reddit but all the relevant invert forums are dead)
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