Found under a stone in the creek. Rolled up at first. Anybody have a good idea of what it is? At the time, I assumed it was a dragonfly nymph but a google image search doesn't show anything similar.
Found a bunch of folks checking out this beast. Some kind of corydalid larvae, though at the time I thought it was a beetle b/c I am bug dumb like that.
Part of a collection taken for an outreach event with City of Austin Watershed Protection and Austin Youth River Watch. Collected about a dozen dobsonfly larvae at this site on Barton Creek.
Habitat here is heterogeneous, with a good mix of substrate type and size, and there is less light pollution and water pollution here compared to other stream sites we monitor in the City of Austin. Dobsonflies appear to have become less abundant in urban streams in the area. Even in suburban streams with relatively good water quality, but with smaller riparian buffers, more homogenous habitat and more artificial lighting, there are fewer or no dobsonflies.
Megaloptera is an order of insects. It contains the alderflies, dobsonflies and fishflies, and there are about 300 known species.
