Emily and Averill Simone identify macroinvertebrates with Frank Sanford, stream team leader.
It’s always fun to spend an afternoon hunting for Macro-invertebrates in the Little Falls Branch. Even though the steam remains in “poor” condition, the stream monitoring team received, as always, the highest marks. The star of the fall monitoring was planaria. We found 28. You might remember these flat worms from biology. If you cut them up, they regenerate. And if you train a planaria to go through a maze and then cut it up, all the regenerated parts remember how to navigate the maze. Amazing!
Learn more about our stream monitoring program HERE.
Notes from the Field:
Planaria - notice the eye spots. They can be trained to move towards light and through a maze.
Thanks to all my efficient crew members on a beautiful fall collecting day. Good news is that the embeddedness of the rocks in stream was less, probably due to recent rains. The large oak that is across the stream is still there and maybe will provide some habitat for new macros in the future. I did see some dragonflies flying around!
Cylindrical leeches - 4
Aquatic worms - 1
Planaria - 28
Aquatic sowbugs - 8
Midges - 1
Black flies - 3
Crane fly (Tipula) - 1
Common netspinner - 40
Fingernet caddis - 3
Small minnow mayflies- 19
See you in the winter!