Insects along the Speed River Park

Polypemus moth hatched from a cocoon (caterpillar was caught elsewhere but they are a local species)

I recently took a course by Stephen Marshall a brilliant entomology professor at Guelph and one of the best profs I have ever had. This inspired a day of insect collecting along the Speed River which is bordered by parks on both sides. Many insects can be found in Guelph along the Speed River in the forest of the park.

Fireflies are actually beetles not flies.Firefly larvae are well armored predators and all of them glow. This is likely a warning to predators that they shouldn't be eaten. Only some species of adult fireflies can be bio luminescent and this is how they attract mates or their prey in the case of some species that eat other fireflies.These two firefly larvae were found attached to a log we had flipped over.

Firefly larvae (Lampyridae)

Looking at the firefly larvae

Ground beetles are pretty common this year and I keep finding the species Carabus serratus. This species is also seen in my March 23rd post. The iridescent elytra (hardened fore wings that cover the softer hind wings) has small indented spots down it. The shiny black underside of the beetle has the first abdominal segment divided by the coxa. This characteristic is very helpful for telling these beetles apart from other groups since most beetles are undivided.

Patrick wit a Carabus serratus

A rove beetle was found by Patrick. These beetles are identifiable based on a very short elytra.  The one we found displayed aggressive defensive behaviour by bending it's abdomen up towards it's head. This would be quite threatening if it were able to spay chemical defenses, However  as Patrick found out this small beetle was not going to hurt him.

Patrick with a rove beetle

We found an insect that was suspected to be a stilt bug (Berytidae). These are true bugs with very long legs. This one got away before we could fully identify him for sure but it did have quite long legs and was definitely a hemipteran (true bug).

 After searching the woods under logs and rocks for a while we went down to a shallower portion of the Speed River and caught some mayfly larvae. Many of them were of the clinger ecotype which is very flat bodied. The gills on these species are not as obvious as in burrowing mayflies. Some case making caddisflies were also found.

Another neat creature that isn't an insect was found under the rocks as well. This female crayfish has an egg case with her.

Crayfish with egg mass

 We dug out some pupae from a goldenrod gall. Many things can parasitize the insects that initially form the gall and I can't yet identify things based on their pupae.  This is likely either a fly or wasp since both of these can be found in goldenrod galls. 

Pupae from goldenrod gall